magoo78

Was Ashba bullied, or did he just talk about how great he was and get his mouth shut.

He said he was bullied. A lot of people from earlier generations got bullied at school and beat up at home before it was acceptable and encouraged to report both bullying and abuse.

Soaked in Bleach

Who killed Kurt Cobain? The official verdict is: he did. Sometime around April 5, 1994, the Nirvana leader injected himself with a massive overdose of heroin at his Seattle home and then used a shotgun to finish the job. Almost immediately after Cobains body was discovered, on April 8, Seattle police announced that he had committed suicide.

But 21 years later, a large and vocal contingent of Nirvana fans and true-crime aficionados continues to insist that Cobain was murdered, in a scheme overseen by his wife, Hole leader Courtney Love, who feared that her husband was about to divorce her and write her out of his will.

This version of events has already been probed by Nick Broomfield in his 1998 documentary Kurt & Courtney. Now, in the new film Soaked in Bleach, first-time director Benjamin Statler revisits the case, once again with ambiguous results. The story is still provocative, but Statler has nothing new to add to it.

Statler relies heavily on the assertions of Tom Grant, the private investigator Courtney hired to find Cobain after he disappeared from a Los Angeles rehab facility just days before his body was found. Grant, also featured in Broomfields documentary, is this films main talking head, as well as a character (played by actor Daniel Roebuck) in its many reenacted scenes. If the picture made any gesture in the direction of objectivity (not that theres any reason it should have to), these scenes would undermine it. Theyre clearly scripted, with the faux Grant and Courtney (Sarah Scott, in a diaphanous negligee) conversing at length in her bedroom. Since these conversations are undocumented, we have only Grants word that they happened the way he says they did. (Although when he claims that Courtney was either doing drugs or on drugs whenever he spoke to her, this is instantly believable.)

Grant taped all of his phone conversations with Love. Some of them rouse suspicions, and none of them stir any sympathy for her. (Brash and blowsy, she is, shall we say, a divisive music-scene figure.) However, when one tape is played twice so that we can hear Courtney saying, The people I had do this, I paid, we immediately realize that shes not talking about Cobains deaththe line has been hammered home to thicken the films atmosphere of dark treachery. Similarly, interviews with old friends of Cobain in his home town of Aberdeen, Washington, tell us very little. One of these friends says he never thought of Cobain as suicidal (He always seemed happy)but then that was long before he and his band were swamped by stardom.

With its rainy nightscapes and other film-noir flourishes, Statlers picture plays like a minor homage to Errol Morriss true-crime classic The Thin Blue Line. But that movie got a man off death row. Despite the torrent of innuendo directed at Love and one of Cobains friends and one employee, nothing is nailed down (which hasnt dissuaded Love from having cease-and-desist orders served on theatres planning to screen the film). The only direct hit the picture lands is on the Seattle Police Department, whichamong several thingstook a month to process Cobains shotgun for fingerprints, and never even developed four rolls of film used to photograph the crime scene. The SPD now says it did reexamine the evidence in the case last year, and it finally developed that film (although not all of the resulting photos have been made public). Conclusion: still suicide. When forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, best known for his assault on the Warren Commissions Kennedy-assassination report, weighs in here to call for a reinvestigation of Cobains deathand to urge that Seattle police play no part in itits hard not to see this as the best way to deal with the public doubts that still linger after all these years.

I must mention that I pop up in this film at a couple of points, in old MTV footage, exemplifying the feckless media that swallowed whole the suicide narrative retailed by Love and the SPD. Why did we not conduct our own investigations to reveal the ugly facts of Cobains death? Theres something to this: credulous journalists have often been led around by the nose by manipulative sources. That said, though, theres a difference between reporting on an event at the time it happens, relying on what little information may be known, and later launching a full-scale inquiry at great cost in time and money, which is usually unforthcoming. In any case, Cobains death has been investigatedby Grant, by Broomfield, and now by Statler, among others. And still, no conclusions have been reached. Like the Kennedy assassination, the Cobain case is unlikely ever to be explained to everyones satisfaction.

Find this and hundreds of other interesting movies at the Reason Shop, powered by Amazon.

Kurt Loder is a writer living in New York. His third book, a collection of film reviews called The Good, the Bad and the Godawful, is now available.

I found it to be a good read. Finished it in a couple of hours, I enjoyed his workout regime ideas and will be incorporating some of them into my routine.

I think Axl considers 'hiatus' to mean an album. You can count the hiatuses haha. What a wanker.

I hardly think so. It was clearly mentioned in the Revolver interview that a new release was being looked into. Fortus recently mentioned a new album and tour in 2016 so why does this add up into some sort of retirement scenario for you?

Not understanding the logic here.

Sorry, is it my job to motivate Axl? I thought that was what his nanny was for. And evidently, looking at the state of him, the fact that he hasn't put out a song in 7 years, has lost yet another band member and some of his recent performances have been nothing short of shambolic, I'd say they're doing a piss poor job.

If Axl can't read criticism without flying into an infantile rage, he's picked the wrong career path. If he's not motivated to perform well, put out music etc. then he should just retire. He's well within his rights to stay in his mansion stuffing his face with sausages free from public scrutiny if he so chooses.

Infantile rage is all this moronic talk about stuffing sausages in your face, fatness and what not.

I don't think you are in position to speak about Axl's motivations or lack of them, what he does or stops doing and when he should retire from music, LOL.

Why don't you try a coup d'état instead?

You've got all necessary features for a good dictator.

So you are accepting that he has retired haha?

Sorry, is it my job to motivate Axl? I thought that was what his nanny was for. And evidently, looking at the state of him, the fact that he hasn't put out a song in 7 years, has lost yet another band member and some of his recent performances have been nothing short of shambolic, I'd say they're doing a piss poor job.

If Axl can't read criticism without flying into an infantile rage, he's picked the wrong career path. If he's not motivated to perform well, put out music etc. then he should just retire. He's well within his rights to stay in his mansion stuffing his face with sausages free from public scrutiny if he so chooses.

Infantile rage is all this moronic talk about stuffing sausages in your face, fatness and what not.

I don't think you are in position to speak about Axl's motivations or lack of them, what he does or stops doing and when he should retire from music, LOL.

Why don't you try a coup d'état instead?

You've got all necessary features for a good dictator.

So you are accepting that he has retired haha?

I don't see any proof to indicate a retirement unless you misconstrue hiatus to mean retirement.

Was giving an outsider point of view about how the forums read just in case anyone was interested. Not bashing any forum members, just letting you know how it comes across - hateormakefunofaxlrose.com.

It seems a lot of hostility is directed at those who don't hate or make fun of the band.

Was giving an outsider point of view about how the forums read just in case anyone was interested. Not bashing any forum members, just letting you know how it comes across - hateormakefunofaxlrose.com.

It's not your forum, it's not your rules. Move on.

It isn't yours either.

Weird perception. It's like if you don't bash Axl, then you're a ballsucker. I don't agree with a lot of things, but it doesn't make me hate or trash the guy. The show I saw in AC in 2012 was up there with any live show I've seen (coming from a Rush fanatic). Hanging out with the band in the foundation room was cool too. Too bad for those that don't know how to enjoy what is!

Why is that opinion looked down on here?