"Actor: Amy Squier"

• Kurt And Courtney | DVD | (24/03/2003) from £12.96   |  Saving you £3.03 (18.90%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Kurt & Courtney, despite the title, is not really a film about the late Nirvana singer and his wife. Rather, in the gonzo style familiar from other Broomfield productions (Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam, Biggie & Tupac), it's a film about making a film about the late Nirvana singer and his wife. The approach is initially engaging, as Broomfield's self-conscious haplessness is a refreshing change from the infallible omniscience that documentary presenters usually seek to project. But by the end it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that Broomfield is hamming it up somewhat to distract attention from his failure to produce anything substantial. Broomfield sets out to delve into the persistent rumours that Cobain's death was not suicide, but murder possibly arranged with Love's connivance. By way of investigation, he speaks to people who claim, with wildly varying levels of plausibility, acquaintance with Cobain and Love. Some are interesting, particularly Love's arrestingly unpleasant father, who believes that his daughter killed her husband, and Kurt's charmingly guileless aunt. Too many of the rest are stoned, stupid or palpably insane, and Broomfield ends up little the wiser for speaking to any of them. Between interviews, Broomfield tries to manufacture tension with a series of heavy but never-quite-substantiated hints that Love is pulling strings to hamper his progress. The final confrontation between filmmaker and subject is one of the most colossal anti-climaxes ever caught on tape. --Andrew Mueller