Much has been written about the troubled childhood of Kurt Cobain, who turned his pain into indelible rock with Nirvana. But nothing has been done with as much style, nor with as much inside information as the mesmerizing “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck” (HBO, 9 p.m.).
Filmmaker Brett Morgan was given not only the journals of young Cobain, but his childhood drawings, home movies, audio tapes, cartoon doodles and eventually music.
What isn’t able to be depicted in film is illustrated in compelling animation, and there are interviews with his parents, stepmother, the first girlfriend who allowed his creativity to flourish, and eventually his wife Courtney Love. Their own home movies of their life together and with their new baby (now listed as film co-producer) are one of the most fascinating aspects of the film, putting to rest any idea they were poor parents.
Of course, there is also music, and we learn the specific mix tape of punk music that opened his mind, and hear an awful lot of his music, in some interesting versions. Longtime friend Kris Novoselic is thoughtful about their venture; oddly, Dave Grohl is barely seen at all (despite his being all over the network in his 10-part music documentary last year).
Footage of the early, explosive Nirvana shows demonstrate how Coban threw himself on instruments just as he bounded off the walls as a hyperactive kid.
But fame does things to people and it did a number on this sensitive kid. He didn’t do interviews much, withdrew from the spotlight as much as a frontman could, and kept his thoughts close to himself until the day he shocked everyone with his suicide (though he had been yowling about it in his songs for years).
It’s the best rock bio you could hope for of a figure who shouldn’t be dismissed as part of a fleeting, plaid fad of the upper Midwest.