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Review

In Last Days, Gus Van Sant continues to experiment with the minimalist style that he utilized in his films Gerry and Elephant to poetically exhibit the days that lead up to the death of Blake (Michael Pitt), a fictional character based on Kurt Cobain. Blake is introduced after his mind has been negatively altered by tremendous fame and fortune. The camera follows him as he drifts in and out of consciousness, avoids the seemingly unconcerned friends who surround him, mumbles incoherently while wandering around his woodland property and expresses his deeply imbedded pain through his music. The mental and emotional disintegration and eventual demise of this tortured artist are resonant because, as the viewer is expected to know, his death will have a major impact on an entire generation of passionate fans. Though perhaps not as powerful as Elephant, Last Days is stylistically the most developed of Van Sant’s reality-based, experimental works. The dramatic context of the plot combined with Van Sant’s somewhat accentuated use of a combination of simple natural images and sounds make the film, as a whole and completed work, all the more haunting. While the deliberately slow-pace of Last Days is not for all tastes, the masterful and mostly improvised performances from Michael Pitt and the supporting cast (including Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, Ricky Jay and Harmony Korine) as well as Van Sant’s careful and delicate handling of his fictional subject will be more than enough to please viewers with an appreciation for the subtle observational qualities. It will stand as a memorable and important addition to Van Sant’s astoundingly impressive body of work.

 -- Robert O'Neill