Last Days Here
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Last Days Here |
| Original title | Last Days Here |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2011 |
| length | 91 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Don Argott Demian Fenton |
| production | Sheena M. Joyce |
| camera | Don Argott Demian Fenton |
| cut | Demian Fenton |
| occupation | |
| |
Last Days Here is a 2011 documentary about Bobby Liebling, the front man of the band Pentagram . The heavy metal band from Woodbridge , Virginia ( USA ), founded in 1971 , still exists today with interruptions. Directed by Don Argott and Demian Fenton .
action
Last Days Here begins with Liebling in his fifties: He lives in his parents' basement, uses drugs and reminisces about old stories. The documentary accompanies him through various phases of his fall and rise, from the young, talented, promising musician to the failed junkie to the fight against his drug addiction and his musical comeback. Some important excerpts from this process, which lasted several years, are shown, including how he moved out of his parents' house, his relationship with Hallie, his stay in prison and concerts that he gave between 2001 and 2005. Repeatedly, recordings of his friend and manager Sean Pelletier are interspersed, who is very committed to Liebling and describes the difficult relationship with him. In addition, former band members have their say, who report about Favorite's destructive ways and explain why the band failed to gain prominence despite promising offers in the 1970s and 1980s.
production
Co-director Fenton first heard of Liebling after listening to a 1970s tape recording of Pentagram and the 2001 First Daze Here compilation. According to rumors, at the time, Liebling lived in his parents' basement and was a drug user. When Fenton and Argott started recording Liebling, they weren't sure whether a documentary could be made from it, as it initially looked like Liebling was slowly killing himself with drugs, but they didn't want to document that. After Liebling started changing his life and trying to get off drugs, there was real potential for a documentary.
The directors shot hundreds of hours of footage over three years, despite a small budget. Liebling showed many facets of his personality during the recordings. The directors tried to portray the frequent changes in his life as evenly as possible in the documentation. “Many times we had to finesse the rapid shifts in Bobby's life so the viewer wouldn't be left confused.” ( Demian Fenton : Filmmaker (Magazine), German: “Often we didn't have to trick the viewer about the rapid changes in bobsleighs Confused life. ")
publication
Last Days Here premiered on March 14, 2011 at the South by Southwest Festival . Then Sundance Selects secured the rights for North America and published the documentary in theaters and on its video-on-demand platform. The documentary was released on DVD on July 31, 2011. Last Days Here was first broadcast on German television on August 7, 2012, in the English original with German subtitles.
reception
The documentary was well received by the critics, on the Rotten Tomatoes website it received a rating of 84% from 19 reviews. It was also very well received by the audience with a rating of 4.1 / 5 stars.
"Directors Don Argott and Demian Fenton have created a nimble and strangely poignant portrait of a drug addict who has already knocked on Heaven's Gate and then experienced an amazing rebirth."
Stephen Saito of the Independent Film Channel called Favorite Story a typical rock star story that normally nobody would have cared about, as Pentagram hadn't been well known by then. Nevertheless, Fenton and Argott invested six years and waited for the story to develop, this persistence was rewarded with a sad, sometimes frustrating but ultimately triumphant story. He praised the approach of the directors to not only base the documentary on the main character Bobby Liebling, but to advance the story about the supporting characters, whom Liebling mostly see as a hopeless case.
Eric Kohn of IndieWire particularly emphasizes the bloodcurdling energy of the first half hour, which addresses Favorite's fateful lifestyle and his untapped potential in relation to the cult around his work and his inability to deal with the hype. However, he complains that the makers fail to maintain the intensity over the entire length and that the story feels incomplete. In the end, one is led to believe that darling has finally understood what is important and the viewer just wishes that it really is.
Web links
- 914Pictures.com - Official Website
- Last Days Here in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Last Days Here at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Last Days Here at Metacritic (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Nigel M. Smith: Sundance Selects Acquires rock Doc 'Last Days Here' (English) . In: IndieWire , April 14, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ↑ a b c Brandon Harris: Don Argott and Demian Fenton's 'Last Days Here' (English) . In: Filmmaker (Magazine) , March 14, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ↑ a b Last Days Here at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ^ ZDFkultur broadcast information (archive) . ZDF website . Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ Gary Goldstein: Movie Review: 'Last Days Here' (English) . In: Los Angeles Times , March 23, 2012. Retrieved January 12, 2013. “Co-directors Don Argott and Demian Fenton have created a deft and weirdly affecting portrait of how a drug-addicted man-child knocking on death's door manages an astonishing resurgence. "
- ↑ Stephen Saito: 'Last Days Here', Reviewed (English) , Independent Film Channel. March 18, 2011. Archived from the original on May 9, 2011 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ↑ Eric Kohn: SXSW Review | Pentagram (English) . In: IndieWire , March 18, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
