Forging new ground in the domain of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain is a trying task; scores of works from the investigational film Kurt and Courtney to the artistic rendering of Gus Van Zant's Last Days hit the circuit of conspiracy theorist and fans ages ago. And upon first glance, Kurt Cobain -- About a Son, featuring interviews compiled for its contextual predecessor, Michael Azerrad's book Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana, rings with redundancy. But as many discovered at its premier at New York City's Greenwich Village IFC theatre last night (Oct. 3), what About a Son lacks in fresh, hard substance, is thoroughly made up in revealing minutiae, and director AJ Schnack's refined creative vision and moving medium.

The film, a weave of music (what Azerrad called a "Cobain mix tape," plus soundtrack courtesy of Steve Fisk and Ben Gibbard), gorgeous photographs and cinematography, and roughly one and half hours of tape from Azerrad's extensive interviews, paints a detailed picture of the rocker's past, while candidly clarifying numerous damning and speculative reports. Here, Azerrad's interview, recorded at Cobain's kitchen table in Seattle during the nighttime hours and fundamentally a regurgitation of much of his book's content, is shown in new light as the intonations of Cobain's voice, witty quips, and oddly, his apparent bubbly attitude surface. Though also telling of Cobain's depression and paranoia, the film sees laughs and humorous, hyper-nostalgic tales, delivering a previously undiscovered cheery disposition to a man so often depicted in the media otherwise.

As a chronological documentation, About a Son first offers despair imagery -- Cobain's demolished home, the town's desolate haunts, and lumberyard -- of the dank logging outpost of Aberdeen, as recantations of his life and times enjoying childhood, later suffering from his parent's divorce, and eventually finding solace in the liberating punk scene narrate. Olympia follows, with sweeping shots of the capitol's cultured bohemian lifestyle, which Cobain wryly explains he held a love hate relationship with, before moving onto Seattle, Nirvana's explosion on the local and global music scenes, and Cobain's struggle with the ensuing attention, all described in his boyishly charming croak and reactive critique.

To celebrate the film's premier, both Schnack and Azerrad were on hand for a brief Q&A. Before the film, Schnack discussed a major motivation for its creation; to strip away the public misconceptions and demonizations of Cobain, which the director explained his then 13-year-old nephew sadly illustrated when first diving head first into Nirvana years ago. Following the showing, one attendee questioned, "Is he really that upbeat and funny in real life, or is that just editing?" Visually relieved and smiling at Schnack, Azerrad was happy to reply. "That's the main point of the film… he really was." 

Now Watch This:
Official Kurt Cobain About a Son Trailer