# Kurt & Courtney (1998)

### reviewed by
Murali Krishnan

    Kurt & Courtney

    [2.5/4.0]

Everyone who follows the popular music scene knows the musical group "Nirvana", who had a large world-wide following and, as the prototypical Seattle band, defined the genre of "grunge rock". The creative leader of the group was writer and guitarist Kurt Cobain. Cobain ended his life with a shotgun blast to the head in April 1994. For many people, the story ends there, but as veteran documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield finds out, there may be more to the story. He finds many people who feel that Cobain's death was not a suicide, but was rather a homicide that was covered up.

All of the conspiracy theories have a common thread. They all connect Cobain's wife, Courtney Love, to his death. No one appears to claim she pulled the trigger, but some claim that she hired someone else to do the job, or else she drove Cobain to do it himself. In all, no one has much to say that is very positive about Love. She is generally portrayed, as a shallow, manipulative, opportunistic, gold-digger, which is in stark contrast to the caring, introverted, Cobain. As might be expected when researching a typical conspiracy theory, many of the sources are vague and many of the people are shady. Amazingly, one of the people suggesting Cobain was murdered is Love's own father.

This is an interesting film, but there are two glaring weaknesses. First, most people believe that Cobain's death was simply a suicide. Second, and more annoying, Broomfield has chosen to make himself too much of a participant in the story. Besides the usual amount behind-the-camera narration expected in a documentary, Broomfield spends too much time in front of the camera. At one point he even voices a position against Love at an awards ceremony. Also annoying is Broomfield's continuous complaints of how Love is continuously trying to sabotage the film by denying the use of any "Nirvana" music, and by persuading the producers to pull funding. Perhaps it is because she has something to hide, but one also understands that she knows this will be an unflattering portrayal of her and her actions is well within her rights.

Recommended. It may not be of interest to viewers who do no care for documentaries, since it is not a very good entry for that genre. However, the enjoyable aspect of the film in not in any revelations, but rather in seeing part of the cast of sordid and quirky group of people that have been, and still are, associated with Kurt and Courtney.

    (c) 1999 Murali Krishnan
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