Film Forum

Rock musician and international cultural icon Nick Cave, “resembles nothing so much as a postmillennial hybrid of bookie and peer of the realm…(with) a face that has been described both as ‘angelic’ and ‘hideous to the eye’” (John Wray, The New York Times Magazine). Since the late 1970s, Cave’s bands The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Grinderman have set the standard for literate post-punk virtuosity. 20,000 DAYS ON EARTH is no conventional profile or talking-head hagiography. Filmmakers/visual artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard frame the movie through one imagined day in his life – blending fact and fiction, songwriting, encounters with collaborators (Kylie Minogue, Ray Winstone, former and current bandmates Blixa Bargeld and Warren Ellis), therapy sessions, rehearsals, and other stimuli that feed his creative process – all capped off by a smoldering live performance. 

UK • 2014 • 97 MINS. • DRAFTHOUSE FILMS

Reviews

“CRITICS’ PICK.  As intimate and honest a portrait of a rock artist’s creative roots as any film has attempted… The film opens with a spectacular three-minute montage in which streams of images from his life are clocked as a counter speeds to the number 20,000… The film bursts into a flood of music…a grandiloquent finale in which his agonized introspection finds transcendent release.”
 – Stephen Holden, The New York Times 

“Unclassifiable and often spectacular. An exceptionally intimate portrait. An imagistic and impressionist work, a Nick Cave-esque tone poem. Delightful. Enlightening. Hilariously dry. A beautiful film, if also more than a little bit cracked. An affectionate but faintly self-mocking portrait. (A) dense, puzzling and often gorgeous film… like a delicious chocolate with live insects at the center.” 
– Andrew O’Hehir, Salon

“Incredible. Puts most music films to shame. So inventive and inspiring. It embraces a mystery and protects it, and it’s thrilling to behold.”
– Dave Calhoun, Time Out

“The most sophisticated rock star biography ever…beautifully shot...in one visually explosive sequence, he waxes lyrical about the time he met his wife Susie Bick…a powerful moment in A REMARKABLE FILM.”
– Nick James, Sight and Sound

“Simply astounding, razor sharp, dynamic”
– Rob Nelson, Variety

“GORGEOUS & HAUNTING...an unclassifiable and frequently spectacular documentary”
– Andrew O'Hehir, Salon

“Probably (the) best music doc I've ever seen… so much more than music. Beautifully made.”
– Wendy Mitchell, Screen International

“Staged, stylized and weird as fuck, it's the rare rock film that raises more questions than lighters.”
– Logan Hill, RollingStone.com

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