Soaked in Bleach (2015)

Touches You

Best movie ever!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

If you know the story surrounding Kurt Cobain's death then there are no spoilers in this review.Documentaries are seen to be unembellished, an altruistic person(s) is trying to tell you a horrible truth based on factual evidence. However, ever since I watched Zeitgeist 10 years ago and subsequently discovered it contain very little factual knowledge. I have always been skeptical of documentaries. This one is no different.The first moments after watching this documentary I felt uneasy, like someone is pushing me just too hard in a certain direction. I couldn't fact check any content, and then I read Roger Ebert's review, '"it's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it." And he was right. This film was done in a very odd way.You are subject to a dramatisation of events from Tom Grants memories. The character of Courtney is a stereotypical villain, no emotion, compassion or empathy. Constantly conniving and plotting. Tom, however, is represented as the selfless hero hell bent on getting to the truth. Regardless of the costs. It seems a bit 'panto' to be considered an accurate representation of character.The interviews with the experts also have a 'pantomime' feel. Shot in a room with a large glass roof with a storm raging outside, all that was missing was Courtney's cackle echoing in the distance.Many assertions are too woolly, seemingly contrived to give more weight to the writers beliefs. For example Kurt is described as non-suicidal, even happy. A trove of old friends are paraded in front of you to corroborate this, his depressive lyrics and song titles are put down to excessive fan analysis. I find this very hard to believe about a heroin addict who wanted a divorce and spent much of his time alone, he might not have been depressed, but happy?Factual evidence is presented but not fully analysed. We are told about Kurt's suicide note several times, it is analysed to see if it could have been forged and analysed linguistically to see if it makes sense. But at no point do we get to read what it actually says (and we get to read a lot of other things). Needless to say I have read it since, and it shows the thoughts of a depressed man, who by all accounts wants to die.By the end of the documentary I had one blindingly obvious question which seems to be ignored in the whole documentary. Why, if you were going to kill a heroin addict, would you give them an overdose of heroin AND shoot them in the head with a shotgun? Makes no sense. Its more risky, more likely to go wrong and leaves more questions to be asked by law enforcement.The documentary does do a good job of highlighting poor police work by the Seattle Police Department, but this does not mean Kurt Cobain was murdered.In summary the documentary lacked logic. The Director and Producers were clearly trying to sway audience opinions using cheap tactics and all in all it lessens the punch of some of the facts they do enlighten you with. Be careful when watching this, it definitely needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.

I recently viewed the film Soaked in Bleach (2015) about Kurt Cobain. I was really excited to watch this as I had seen many documentaries about the artist and his controversial death. I will preference this by saying while he was active in music I was not a huge fan. It wasn't until after his passing that I became interested in his story. I will say that there are documentaries available that were more complete than the movie being reviewed. As the premise was there it was just missing certain emotional beats that would have greatly enhanced the viewing experience. A story like this with possible betrayal, tragedy and suspense should be the perfect ingredients for an Oscar nominated productions sadly Soaked in Bleach fell short in several areas. I recommend anyone to see it for yourselves but for me it was not my cup of tea.

Soaked in Bleach (2015) *** 1/2 (out of 4)Director Benjamin Slater takes a look at the private investigation by Tom Grant who was hired by Courtney Love to locate Kurt Cobain a week before his death. This documentary takes a look at his investigation as well as his thoughts on what really happened to Cobain.The term "conspiracy theory" is discussed early on in this documentary and for good reasons. Since the death of Cobain there have been countless theories out there on whether or not the Nirvana singer actually killed himself. This documentary doesn't try to pretend it's anything other than proof that the singer did not commit suicide and that Courtney Love had a role in his death.The main theory here is that Cobain was about to leave Love, which means she would have gotten very little money in the divorce settlement. The theory is that someone shot up Cobain with a large amount of heroin and then staged the suicide. There's discussion of various issues with the police work done at the scene and the now infamous suicide note is also debated. It's clear that Grant and the filmmaker believe that Love had Cobain killed so that she would inherit his fortune.The great thing about conspiracy theories is that we'll probably never really know the truth. I've seen documentaries that seem to show Cobain did commit suicide and then I've seen others where it seems he was murdered. I wasn't there so I can't say what really did happen but as a documentary I found SOAKED IN BLEACH to be extremely well-made and there's no question that it's entertaining. The documentary features interviews with the main investigator as well as others who knew Cobain. We also get some re-enactments that try to show the state that Love was in a week before Cobain's death.No matter what you think about the possible murder or suicide, this documentary is highly entertaining and is certainly worth watching.

Sad that folks are buying this mass of lies. Near the beginning Tom makes a point that Courtney called him 5 days prior on Easter Sunday. He made a deal about his working on Sunday. Kurt passed the week prior, Easter was the day of the memorial service at the Seattle Center. Thousands of us came out that afternoon to mourn together. I will never forget that day and think of it every Easter.Nothing this man says in the film is credible.Think critically and do not buy into the obvious falsehoods. Do your own research, find the answers on your own, but please do not take this film at face value.Honor Kurts memory, but know this film is just a bunch of lies.