There's something claustrophobic and foreboding about the combination, and Cobain, tossed aloft by moshing video extras, looks like a rag doll about to be ripped apart.

| Jan 26, 2024

Two decades on, the life and work of Kurt Cobain is still being discussed, consumed and processed. Montage of Heck doesn't just contribute to that conversation; it elevates it to a whole new level.

| Jul 2, 2019

It's inherently fascinating material, but Morgen's attempt to delve deep into Cobain's life doesn't prove to be especially illuminating.

| Jun 5, 2019

Cobain's music and his striking artwork coalesce to help us understand his mind - however the rest of this documentary plays it a little too safe to take us much further.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 10, 2019

The most depressing, tragic and, of course, marketable version is presented here and what we have is not good record but Sundance-friendly miserablism...

| May 7, 2019

Seeing him through the eyes of his parents was the most poignant segment in a very detailed and moving documentary about his artistically fruitful, personally painful and very short life.

| Aug 22, 2018

Fortunately, the original material of Montage of Heck is so captivating that [director Brett] Morgen's intrusions do not ruin the multifaceted portrait we get of Cobain... [Full review in Spanish]

| Jan 12, 2018

Of the many films that have been made about Kurt Cobain, documentary and fiction, [director Brett] Morgen's is the best because what it leaves us with is the one thing that most defined his life: empathy.

| Sep 21, 2017

The unique method of tracking Kurt's life through his diary entries, artwork, home movies, unheard songs, photographs, songbooks and demos unveil a side of him we have never seen.

| Sep 13, 2017

It's a rare profile that's about the person instead of the personality, the artist instead of the art.

| May 30, 2016

Montage of Heck isn't an investigation into its subject's death so much as an homage to his creativity and life force -- it's tender and sad.

| Feb 29, 2016

Montage of Heck makes the tragic end of Cobain's life more heartbreaking through it's delicate retelling of his 27 years.

| Original Score: B+ | Feb 22, 2016

We see-almost from the inside-the evolution of Cobain's sensitive brilliance and the art and destruction that it fed.

| Jan 4, 2016

Morgen and his editors have simply done a remarkable job -- also an artful one -- in piecing together this residuum.

| Original Score: A- | Jan 3, 2016

Montage of Heck is about the representation and self-representation of Kurt Cobain, a fascinating process for any figure whose entire fame was based on modes of self-representation.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 3, 2016

Morgen's movie is an eye-level, straight-on gaze at the soul that would turn rock music on its head when it was so desperately needed.

| Jan 3, 2016

Montage of Heck is an insightful, moving mosaic that works to immerse you, for better or worse, inside Kurt Cobain's creative process and personal demons.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jan 3, 2016

On the subject of the life and death of Kurt Cobain there is still some work to be done, but Montage of Heck may be as close as we'll get to moving on.

| Jan 3, 2016

A masterful and often deeply moving portrait of a volatile American genius, a portrait that goes far beyond one man, one family and one rain-sodden small town.

| Jan 3, 2016

Cobain's life has been chronicled in scores of books and documentaries, but Montage of Heck feels fresh in the scope of material it includes, the way it's presented, and the things it emphasizes.

| Jan 3, 2016