Gus Van Sant

I met director Gus van Sant recently, to participate in a roundtable session for his new film, "Last Days", a film based on a fictitious character loosely based on Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, that focuses on the final days of his life. The film stars Michael Pitt, who starred in Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Dreamers" (he was at the roundtable as well.)

While I am a fan of some of van Sant's earlier works, ("My Own Private Idaho," "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues," "Drugstore Cowboy,"), I can't say this new film is great. The camera lingers for painful lengths of time to watch the main character, Blake, stumble and mumble through the woods behind his crumbling mansion, swim, make mac 'n cheese, and avoid those looking for him. There are some interesting visual and sound cues, but it's just not enough to make me care about this character...(to be honest, I felt sorry for Courtney when he died, but I had no personal grievances about what he'd done, I felt it was extremely selfish.)

The link to where my review is at the right, at www.tailslate.net. Run by my brother-in-law Michael, writing reviews and doing Q&As has given me the opportunity to interview some great actors including Javier Bardem ("The Sea Inside"), Daniel Day Lewis, Rebecca Miller and Catherine Keener ("The Ballad of Jack and Rose.")