Genre: Biography/Drama
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Writers: Lon Charles & Alex Conn
Cast: Ben Foster, Riley Keough, John Magaro, Nicholas Braun, Sharon Stone, Lukas Haas, Michael Angarano, Bruce Dern
Plot: April 3, 1994. Courtney Love (Riley Keough) sits at a table outside of a trendy L.A. coffee house. Her hair and makeup are even more of a mess than usual, with streaks of mascara running down her cheeks from crying. She tells a private investigator, Tom Grant (Stanley Tucci), that her husband, rock star Kurt Cobain has fled from drug rehab and she has no idea where he is. Grant agrees to track down Kurt for her.
January 11, 1992. Kurt Cobain (Ben Foster) and his band mates Krist Novoselic (Nicholas Braun) and Dave Grohl (John Magaro) are in the middle of a photo shoot prior to a performance on "Saturday Night Live". During a break in the shoot, Kurt goes into the bathroom and shoots up some heroin. When the photo shoot resumes, Kurt keeps nodding out. The photographer asks Dave and Krist what's wrong with Kurt, but they don't know what to say and tell him that Kurt's just being Kurt. Kurt continues to go in and out of consciousness throughout the day until it's time to go out and perform on the show. The band plays "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in front of the show's studio audience like nothing is wrong and bring the house down to uproarious applause. Krist and Dave are both surprised and relieved that Kurt was able to perform the way he did based on how he acted throughout the day.
February 23, 1992. Kurt and Courtney are in a hotel suite at Waikiki Beach in Hawaii. The room is trashed. Kurt and Courtney lay in bed, high. They talk about their wedding the next morning before passing out. The next morning, Love is sick and throwing up. Kurt tells her that she's probably just withdrawing early and she should just do some more heroin. Courtney tells him no, that she has to get her dress on for their wedding. While Courtney gets ready, Kurt sits around smoking cigarettes in his pajamas, falling back asleep. He wakes up when lit cigarette falls from his lap, catching his pillow on fire. Kurt puts out the fire and realizes that Courtney has already left the suite for the wedding. Kurt walks out of the hotel in green plaid pajamas and bare feet toward the beach. It's a shockingly small wedding with just a handful of guests, including Dave and Kurt's mother Wendy (Sharon Stone).
After the wedding, Courtney starts feeling sick again. Wendy comments that as much she hopes Courtney is pregnant so she can be a grandmother, she thinks Courtney probably has food poisoning. After Wendy's comment, Courtney goes down to the hotel gift shop and purchases a pregnancy test. She takes the test up in the room and the result is positive. She immediately tells Kurt, who is mostly apathetic about the news. Courtney then starts flushing all their drugs down the toilet. Kurt stops her and demands to know what she thinks she's doing. She tells him that she is not going to be some junkie while pregnant. Now that she's going to be a mother she wants to be clean so she can be a better mother than hers ever was. Kurt tells her that he doesn't want to give up heroin. She tells him that it's now her job to take care of their unborn baby and she's going to get clean, even if he won't join her.
Kurt rushes into the hospital as soon as he heard Courtney was giving birth to their baby. He is unbathed, wearing dirty clothes, and far from sober. By the time he arrives at the hospital, Courtney has already given birth to their daughter, whom she has named Frances.
Kurt, Courtney and their newborn daughter spend their days at a luxury hotel in Los Angeles when a journalist from Vanity Fair does a piece about the new, upstart family. During the interview, Courtney is holding Frances and telling the writer that unbeknownst to her, she did heroin while pregnant before she found out she was with child. As soon as she found out she was pregnant though, she swore off drugs. Courtney tells the writer that the baby has helped her and Kurt remain sober since they want to be present for Frances' upbringing.
February, 1993. The band settles into a studio in a desolate place in Minnesota. Kurt is still doing heroin but he is having panic attacks. But the recording process is going relatively smoothly. They get along with Steve Albini (Lukas Haas) more than they thought they would. They are smoking weed a lot and drinking booze and Kurt is doing heroin. One day Courtney comes and disrupts the recording process by criticizing the bands work. Nevertheless they keep working.
July, 1993. Nirvana is in New York City for a performance at the New Music Seminar. Kurt has been doing heroin before the show as usual, with Courtney at his side. Courtney nods out on a couch next to him. When she wakes up, she finds Kurt unresponsive. She tries shaking him awake, but he is out cold. She starts digging through her purse for something, when the rest of Nirvana enters the room looking for Kurt. Dave laments that Kurt has finally killed himself and of course it had to be right before a show. Krist asks Courtney if she's called an ambulance yet. Courtney tells him to shut up and pulls a syringe out of her purse. Dave says that he's pretty sure more heroin isn't going to make Kurt okay. Courtney stabs Kurt in the arm with the needle and presses the syringe's plunger, injecting the contents into Kurt's bloodstream. Confused, Krist asks Courtney what's going on. She tells him to wait a minute. Finally, Kurt wakes up and asks why everyone is standing around him. Courtney tells Krist and Dave that she injected Kurt with Naloxone, which counteracts the heroin. Kurt gets up, saying he's ready to perform. Dave tells Kurt he doesn't look so good, but Kurt insists on taking the stage with the rest of the band.
October, 1993. Kurt Cobain is in Lawrence, Kansas visiting one of his heroes William S. Burroughs (Bruce Dern). Kurt plays guitar for a backing track for a spoken word recording Burroughs is working on. After the recording session they go back to Burroughs' house. They talk about their shared love of heroin, as well as Kurt's favorite book, Burroughs' Naked Lunch. Burroughs pulls out a large vintage hypodermic needle and shoots up. Kurt joins him. As they lay around and absorb their high, Kurt notices a letter from the White House on the coffee table and opens it. It's a letter from President Clinton inviting him to the White House for a poetry reading. Kurt is impressed by the letter, but Burroughs doesn't even know who the current president is.
Nirvana is on tour in Rome. The band hits the usual tourist sights around the city for a series of photo ops. After ward, every heads back to their hotel rooms to rest up before their concert that night. At the concert venue, everyone is waiting for Kurt, who oblivious to the time is doing heroin in his hotel room. He passes out and begins foaming from his mouth. Courtney returns to the room from shopping and finds Kurt. She haphazardly tries to perform CPR on him, but she clearly doesn't know what she is doing. Desperate, Courtney calls down to the hotel desk and frantically asks them to get a doctor to the room immediately.
Back in the United States after Kurt's overdose in Rome, the members of Nirvana have agreed to try to keep a closer eye on Kurt. Krist Novoselic, having not heard from Kurt in more than a day, offers to take him out to get some dinner. Kurt says he knows of a place they can go, but Krist has to drive since he has been drinking. They drive out of the city and into an industrial area. Krist comments that he thinks they must have taken a wrong turn because it doesn't look like there are any restaurants out in this area. Kurt points out a small house and tells Krist to pull over in front of it. Kurt hops out of the car and knocks at the door of the house. When the door opens, Kurt hands the man some money and is handed a small paper bag in return. Kurt hops back in Krist's car and says they can go get some dinner now. Krist asks what Kurt was getting, but Kurt doesn't answer. Krist tells Kurt that he isn't comfortable helping him score drugs. Kurt tells Krist to relax, it's not like he's shooting up in the car. Krist says that next time Kurt needs a ride to score some smack that he should ask someone else because he doesn't want any part of it.
March 25, 1994. Fed up with his drug use around baby Frances, Courtney arranges an intervention with the band and one of Kurt's oldest friends, Dylan Carlson (Michael Angarano). Kurt comes downstairs following yet another drug binge to find them all waiting in his living room. They all take turns telling Kurt how much they care about him and just want him to be healthy. Kurt is not happy about everyone imposing on him. He goes ballistic on them, telling them that he is not a drug addict, he CHOOSES to do heroin because it helps his stomach pain. He insists he could stop using anytime he wants. Dylan tells him to try then. Kurt charges Dylan, but Krist and Dave pull him away. Kurt screams at everyone to get out of his house.
After everyone has left, Kurt locks himself in a room where he stores his guns. He tells Courtney to leave him alone or he'll kill himself. Courtney, trying to console a crying Frances, while crying herself, calls the police and tells them that her husband is acting suicidal and has locked himself in a room with guns and pills. The police arrive and ask to speak to Kurt. He opens the door to talk to the officers and tells them he isn't suicidal. He just wanted Courtney to leave him alone. The police confiscate several guns from the room as well as a bottle of pills.
March 30, 1994. Courtney tells Kurt that she is going to move out and take Frances away from him unless he makes the decision to quit using heroin. Kurt finally agrees to go to a rehab center to detox off of the drugs. During intake at the facility in Los Angeles, Kurt plays with Frances and appears to be at peace for the first time in a long time. The staff at the facility tell Courtney that she and the baby have to leave. Courtney gives Kurt a big hug and tells him that she's happy that he's finally decided to get clean for France's sake. On her way out the door, she tells him that she and Frances will be waiting for him. That night, Kurt is smoking a cigarette in the back patio area of the facility. Once his cigarette is done he scales a six-foot fence and walks away from the building toward the city.
April 8, 1994. Kurt is alone, yelling and screaming to no one in particular in a heroin mess at his house in a densely wooded area just outside Seattle. He has a shotgun in his hand and starts to head outdoors. He wanders around the property with the shotgun before he decides to go into his greenhouse. He begins feverishly scribbling out a note. He then reaches for the shotgun and aims it toward his own face. Kurt then suddenly pulls the trigger, with his body hitting the floor with a thud.
April 9, 1994. Tom Grant calls Courtney and tells her that Kurt has been located. Courtney excitedly asks where he is. Tom tells her it's a little more complicated than that. Kurt's body has been identified at the King County morgue. Courtney drops the phone.
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