Soaked in Bleach: Suicides Aren’t Always Suicides

Hello hello everybody! We are back with the all important movie club. This time, we take a look at the docudrama around the death of grunge rock band Nirvana’s front man Kurt Cobain. We are Soaked in Bleach.

SOAKED IN BLEACH

DIRECTED BY: Benjamin Statler 

STARRING: Daniel Roebuck, August Emerson, Sarah Scott, Tyler Bryan

GENRE: Docudrama

YEAR: 2015

COUNTRY: United States

The film provides a look at inconsistencies in the death of Kurt Cobain (portrayed by Tyler Bryan), the lead singer of the American grunge band Nirvana, as seen through the perspective of private investigator and former police detective Tom Grant (portrayed by Daniel Roebuck). In addition to the dramatization of Cobain’s final days, the film combines documentary footage as well as interviews with people associated with the case such as former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper and former president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences Cyril Wecht. Grant’s own recorded conversations with key figures such as Rosemary Carroll, Cobain and Love’s attorney and Dylan Carlson—the man who purchased the shotgun used to kill Cobain—are also prominently featured.

Soaked in Bleach appeared on my radar a while back, just in a random article. It was weird, but intrigued me. Now is it actually good? Overall, it isn’t bad. For a bunch of nobody actors, their performances weren’t half bad. This was a surprise as in films like these don’t normally have much in the way of acting. What Soaked in Bleach really has going for it can be found in the technical aspect. The film jumps between actual audio recordings taken between Grant and Love and the actors portraying them on screen. The transition is rather seamless and it actually doesn’t stand out. Take notes.

The major drawback of Soaked in Bleach is its pacing. The film is very SLOW! While the film is still entertaining despite this, I found myself repeatedly looking at the clock and estimating the run time until the film ended. Not exactly the response you would like from one of your viewers. The actual subject matter bothered me as well. Not so much the actual suicide, but the information presented that tried to prove that it was murder instead. Why didn’t they look at it more closely? It intrigues me enough to look into it, but still.

PROS:

• Surprising main cast performance.
• Transitions with audio and video.
• Compelling information.

CONS:

• Slow pacing.
• Presentation.

SCORE: 6.0 / 10K

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