20,000 Days On Earth Review

20,000 Days On Earth
Singer, songwriter, scriptwriter, iconoclast, bluesman and, who knows, probably legendary cake baker too when he sets his mind to it, Nick Cave plays on, picks apart and recalibrates his public persona in a kinda-documentary format.

by Guy Lodge |
Published on
Release Date:

19 Sep 2014

Running Time:

97 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

20,000 Days On Earth

You wouldn't expect Nick Cave, the singular musician whose creative accomplishments extend to writing The Proposition and Lawless, to be the subject of any ordinary cut-and-paste rockumentary. Cave has a sharp cinematic sensibility, and it surfaces again in this shimmering, playfully elusive portrait, which blends interview and performance footage with more constructed, noir-style digressions, all within an elegant life-in-a-day structure. Staged therapy sessions tap into Cave’s personal history, while Kylie Minogue and Ray Winstone appear for amusing interludes. Curiously seductive, it’s not just a film for completists.

It may not be an access-all-areas portrayal of one of rock's most enigmatic characters, but then, where would be the fun in that?
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