i must have seen a different film!!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I think this piece of work being produced by Frances Bean Cobain is the best film I have seen on Kurt yet. It really shows how different he was, how Courtney seemed to be the downfall of it all in my opinion. I love the illustrations along with his recorded audio. Kurt to this day is such an iconic rock star but remains such a mystery. Krist (Nirvana bass player) really gives some intuitive insight too. My only griped is that Dave Grohl (Drummer of Nirvana) was not in interviewed. Kurt was such an influential piece of the grunge sound and really the face of it all. A must watch!

I almost never believe the hype about movies like this. But this Kurt Cobain documentary really is as brilliant and innovative as everyone says that it is. I've never seen anything like it!The moment the story starts, it seems real and fresh. Hearing the Everly Brothers and seeing Cobain home movies of Aberdeen in the early Sixties captured a mood, a moment of promise. It seemed like a miracle was going to happen. And Kurt Cobain was that miracle. I loved the way the story began with such hope, and the way the notebooks and paintings Kurt Cobain compiled came to life. The energy and excitement that is entirely missing from Gus Van San't exercise in slumming necrophilia, LAST DAYS, was really crackling all around in the middle part of this movie. I could have done without some of the animated story sequences, though. Having a "generic" teenage Kurt bragging about hooking up with a mentally challenged girl, just seemed sort of heavy handed and obvious. This was a guy who would tell any lie just to make the world he came from seem even more disgusting than it really was. But the sequences where he's compiling lists of band names, lists of great punk rock tracks, and lists of "things the band needs to do" were not only illuminating, they were inspiring. The last half hour was pretty depressing. Whereas in the early scenes the Cobain family are frank, modest, and courageous, the people from Kurt's famous period are obviously covering their own behinds and revealing just what they want to reveal. The home movies of Kurt, Courtney, and the baby were touching, in a way, but on some level I think they were staged. (That'll cost me some helpful votes, but I just can't help saying what I feel! And this movie made me feel a lot of things.)This is certainly the best documentary I've ever seen about a rock star. There probably won't be many more, either.

When Montage of Heck, a Sundance Film Festival award winning movie directed by Brett Morgan, was released, Rolling Stone Magazine called it "the most intimate rock doc ever made". This could not be more true. Frances Bean Cobain was credited as a producer for the project which was terrific news for Morgan. Courtney Love is, quite frankly, a nut case, all of the rights to Kurt Cobain's music, recordings, notebooks, and home movies are in Frances' name. These rights are exercised to their fullest extent in this movie. Many other documentaries focus on one story, told in different parts by people related to the subject. There is very little music or excitement in them. A documentary about Kurt Cobain had better be playing Nirvana nonstop. Not only that, but the film features popular music from his childhood and live performances, and even includes arrangements of songs like Smells Like Teen Spirit. Certain guitar parts or vocals are isolated and played to create certain moods over a scene. The entire soundtrack is quite genius actually. The interviews are told by people that are generally well known to Nirvana fans and the public. Krist Novecelic (Nirvana's bassist) and Courtney Love (Cobain's wife) are amongst several people who contribute to the story, along with Kurt's parents and the muse of Nevermind, Kurt's ex-girlfriend Tracy. Each person has another heartbreaking piece of the Cobain legacy. As stated before though, this isn't the only way the story is told. The home movies and recordings are pieced together in this amazing time line that lay most of Kurt's life out on the screen. Kurt Cobain was a mystery to the world. He told such extravagant stories and lied because, as the voice of Kurt explains, he was bullied as a child and wanted to make himself "cool". First of all, hearing him talk about being bullied possesses such a humanizing effect, Kurt seems like another run of the mill faceless kid, which is exactly what he was before Nirvana. And also, it is such a refreshing way to hear a story. Rather than be told one opinion of the man by people who knew him, the viewer can watch, god like, over the story and form their own opinion. For the parts of his life that were not recorded, Kurt's digital journal was used as the narration for an animated version of 1980's Aberdeen, 1990's Seattle, and everywhere he was in-between. The story is interesting to be heard with an artists rendition to help the viewer visualize the story better. Listening to Kurt's voice on these stories is amazing, while being a little demented. It's a great strategy to get the audience closer, but while some of the audio clips were from interviews, some sounded as if they were recorded journal entries. Almost as if everyone watching the film was reading his diary. Kurt was quoted saying that he never wanted all the fame. People constantly trying to figure him out and get in his head made him uncomfortable all the time. Had Cobain himself seen the film, he probably would've hated it. Every aspect of this poor man's life was too chaotic for a perfectly strong person to handle. Kurt was a sad boy at heart who had a broken brain and a rotting stomach. Every single morning, he would wake up to a swarm of thoughts constantly stinging him like yellow jackets. Which makes Montage of Heck a perfect title for a story about the tragedy of Cobain. Rather than focus on the band and his contribution to rock and roll, Montage brings the viewer into the enigmatic mind of Nirvana's front man. From the beginning where he was a giddy, creative, and loving little kid, to the end where the weight of being the worlds biggest rock star makes him want to taste the shell of a shotgun blast. The legend of Kurt Cobain is a difficult thing to capture, but Montage of Heck does an exceptional job of telling it.

A sad exploitation of a talented man. As a film sanctioned by his estate, it was clear this was only part of the story and only the part that they wanted to put the spin on. What a disgrace to paint Kurt Cobain as nothing but suicidal long before the success of Nirvana. The 2 1/2 hour documentary is tolerable for only about the first hour. After that, the backstory of Kurt Cobain is polluted by the relationship choice he made and a highly biased or third-party influenced (or paid for?) fallacy that this young man, despite having fulfilled his goal of being a recognized musician and having the possibly unexpected pleasure of being a father, wanted nothing more than to die. The snippets from his journals seem taken very much out of context, again to push the idea this man was suicidal for years, and the Pink Floyd "The Wall"-esque animations are cheesy and make this overly-long film a burden to continue to watch until the end. The saddest part for me was watching Kurt Cobain's mother and father, who both rejected him and would not allow him to live with him while he was a teenager, snivel about their loss. You didn't want him then, but you want him now? Many authoritative sources have debunked some of his mother's statements in this film. Very sad. Others who knew him personally adamantly have denied events portrayed in the film, even as the words came from Kurt himself, the sources noting that Kurt was quick to embellish or make up stories to cause subterfuge in the rampant media coverage at the time of his popularity.Also very telling is that Krist Novelic was interviewed for the film but not Dave Grohl due to "scheduling conflicts." In other words, he did not want or was not invited to participate and some PR firm concocted a reason for his absence that some may choose to believe. Watch the first hour to see some precious moments of Kurt as a youngster, skip the last 90 minutes unless you enjoy being manipulated.