Kurt & Courtney

By the end of Kurt & Courtney, you may know more about filmmaker Nick Broomfield than Kurt Cobain or Courtney Love. It's less a study of the tempestuous lives of the Nirvana lead singer and riot grrrl-cum-actress than it is the story of Broomfield's battle with Love over the making of the film, including her successful efforts to sabotage funding and prevent the use of several songs. You can't blame Broomfield for being peeved, but it might have been easier to sympathize if his presence in the film weren't so intrusive. In fact, his ubiquitous, dismissive remarks (referring to Cobain's hometown of Aberdeen, Washington as a "redneck logging town") and vaguely pretentious you-are-there camerawork become downright annoying at times. Lucky for him that his subject is such a wild and provocative one, with a wonderfully twisted cast of characters--highlighted by a drunken punk singer called El Duce who claims Love once offered him "50 grand to whack Kurt"--that makes you wonder why both of them didn't end up dead long before. Unfortunately, the film tends to subjugate its potentially fascinating subject to a record of a filmmaker's pique. You almost wonder why he didn't call the film Kurt & Courtney & Nick. A strong optional purchase. (S. Renshaw)