Sundance movie review: Courtney Love gets raw, intimate in documentary
by Fred Topel · UPIPARK CITY, UTAH Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Antiheroine, which premiered Tuesday at the Sundance Film Festival, is an unflinching portrait of the unapologetic Courtney Love. Love let filmmakers Edward Lovelace and James Hall into her London home where she opened up about her past and wrote new music.
Love shows pages of journals she wrote throughout her life and reads from some in her own voice. She owns any of her past volatility but also sets the record straight.
She shares the sexual assault incident that inspired a song. She narrates archival footage of the formation of Hole and her early performances.
What most people probably come to Antiheroine to learn about is her marriage to Kurt Cobain. This section shows sincere love and sensitivity on both their parts.
Throughout the film Love alludes to accusations that she killed him. This is unfair to anyone let alone someone with a loved one dealing with suicidal ideation.
The film documents some truly shameful behavior such as concertgoers throwing shotgun shells on stage. Her story of the last phone call Cobain attempted to make, and the clerical error that did not put him through to her, is heartbreaking.
She even reads a portion of his suicide note, though keeps more personal elements to herself. This gives context to what Cobain was really going through outside the media spin.
That Hole had to tour for their Live Through This album a week later is unfathomable. Albums had already shipped so postponing wasn't an option. She could either get through the tour or write it off, and history showed how it became a landmark album.
Acting was healthy for Love, though short lived between The People Vs Larry Flynt and Man on the Moon. A hiatus was actually the advice of her manager, JD, and the tracks she rehearses in the film reflect her now, not the old Hole.
Love deals with reconciling her voice at 59, but her producer, Butch Walker, is so supportive it is touching. She karaokes a Nirvana song for the first time ever in a powerful moment.
Two years sober when the film begins, Love is honest about all the drug use in her past. She makes no apologies for who she was but wants people to get to know her again. Antiheroine is a great reintroduction.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.