3 1/2 stars
Between Dec. ’92 and March ’93, journalist Michael Azerrad interviewed Kurt Cobain at length for a book on Nirvana. More than 25 hours of previously unheard footage from those interviews provide the backdrop for this documentary, which allows the off-screen Cobain — who committed suicide in 1994 — to discuss his life in his words, from his depression at age 9 to his abusive father to his musical beginnings to using heroin as “pain medication” for stomach ailments.
Big question: Can this highly atmospheric film achieve the poetry of Gus Van Sant’s sort-of look at the end of Cobain’s life in “Last Days”?
Catch it: The spellbinding “About a Son” invites you to experience Cobain’s life as he saw it and learn that the question, “How did a messed-up musician from Aberdeen, Wash., mean so much to disenfranchised youth?” answers itself.
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QUICK PICKS
The Bucket List (PG-13)
2 1/2 stars
Who’s in it: Morgan Freeman, Jack Nicholson
What it’s about: Two friends suffering from cancer attempt to complete a list of activities — including skydiving — before kicking the bucket.
Worth watching? “Rob Reiner’s simple and impossibly earnest film … has no edge to it anywhere, neither serrated nor blunt, and its glucose content might give more sensitive viewers a migraine.”
– AMY BIANCOLLI, HOUSTON CHRONICLE
First Sunday
1 star
Who’s in it: Ice Cube, Kat Williams, Tracy Morgan, Loretta Divine, Regina Hall
What it’s about: Two best friends and petty criminals are given one week to pay a $17,000 debt or one of them will lose his son. They come up with a desperate scheme to rob their neighborhood church.
Worth watching? “It’s a less preachy, less cross-dressy version of a Tyler Perry epic.”
– ROGER MOORE, THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
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THE REWIND
MATT’S PICKS FOR WHAT’S STILL PLAYING
The Orphanage (R)
4 stars
You haven’t been this scared in years.
There Will Be Blood (R)
3 stars
Got three hours to kill?
The Great Debaters (PG-13)
2 1/2 stars
Not great, but good enough.
One Missed Call (PG-13)
1 star
No voice mails, please.
