The Sundance Film Festival was rocked on Wednesday by the premiere of Antiheroine, a raw and unflinching look at the life of Gen X icon Courtney Love, per theguardian.com. Though the legendary Hole frontwoman was a no-show for the screening in Park City, Utah, her presence loomed large over a film described by director Edward Lovelace as “unfiltered and truthful.”
The 98-minute retrospective, filmed over three years, finds a 61-year-old Love at her London home, reflecting on a career defined by grunge royalty and public controversy. Now sober, Love uses the film to address her abrasive reputation. “I didn’t think about likability ever,” she admits in the opening. “Likability was not a factor.”
Featuring interviews with REM’s Michael Stipe and former Hole bandmates, the documentary retraces Love’s tumultuous journey from early trauma, rise of Hole to the Cobain legacy. Love discusses a fractured childhood in San Francisco, claiming her father gave her LSD at age four, her “naked ambition” in the 1980s LA punk scene and the formation of Hole as a “place for my too-much-ness.”
Moving footage shows Love revisiting journals and lyrics shared with late husband Kurt Cobain. She describes their bond as two “designated scapegoats” who found home in one another.
The film doesn’t shy away from Love’s darker chapters, including the media vitriol following Cobain’s suicide and her subsequent struggles with addiction. Reflecting on her lowest points, Love quips with characteristic bluntness: “If you want to nuke your life, do crack.”
Despite the “tumult,” the documentary ends on a note of recovery. Love is shown writing music for her first album in 15 years, a project she suggests could be called “the recovery record” or the “granted a lease on life record.”
For Love, the film and the upcoming music represent a final reclamation of her narrative. “No one can tell my story but me,” she insists. Antiheroine is currently seeking distribution.
•Featured image: Courtney Love in “Antiheroine”/Edward Lovelace
