LAST DAYS [2005]

Director Gus Van Sant's final film in his Death trilogy, Last Days is inspired by the final days of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.
Already a ghost in his own home, the drug-addled rocker, eerily played by Michael Pitt, wanders around aimlessly searching for some sort of peace that seems to allude him by mere moments..  The film is slow, haunting and dreadfully quiet with the exception of few moments when Pitt picks up his guitar and breaths life into linear narrativ..
All in all, Last Days is paced way too slowly to keep interest and it's characters are all too distant to really grasp onto any sort of emotion beyond confused and cold.  Maybe that's the point but it sure isn't that enjoyable or interesting but Van Sant's direction keeps the viewer hypnotized until the bizarre finale.

3 figures in red out of 5

ELEPHANT [2003]

Director Gus Van Sant's second part of his Death trilogy, Elephant is inspired by the events Columbine High School Massacre.
Utilizing the low-key minimalist style that he revisited in Gerry, Van Sant manages to make a powerful impact with the smaller moments in life that playout in long tracking shots, very little dialogue and his trademark cloud images.  By hiring real highschool kids with little or no cinema acting credentials gives the surreal world a sense of realism that is frightening, sad and silently haunting.
It never tells us why such horrible acts would occur but forces the viewer to question it instead without heavy-handed melodrama which most film-makers would be tempted to overplay.

3½ Gerry video games out of 5

GERRY [2002]

Director Gus Van Sant creates a haunting experience with the indie-minimalist drama, Gerry.  The first part of his so-called Death trilogy, a series of films inspired by real life events depicting youth & death, Gerry tells the story to two close friends who lose their way in the desert, loosely based on an incident in New Mexico.
Van Sant makes great use of this trademark extended tracking shots and wide frame landscapes that seem so vast compared to the tiny dots that are Matt Damon and Casey Affleck.  As the story progresses the dialogue, sound effects and musical score become more sparse which effectively adds to the dread, panic and hopelessness of the dire circumstances.  It's not a film I particularly enjoyed but definitely one I quite admired for it's brilliant style and technique.

3½ mirages out of 5