20,000 Days on Earth

This is an innovative turn on the portrait/talking heads documentary form, especially the dream-subconcious-like car interviews done by Cave himself. Made me wanna love life and be creative... or just do something. And by the way, in case you'd forgotten, Nick Cave is the coolest man on earth!

Workaholic musician/wordsmith in a scripted reality/poetry/performance daydream, goth ambrosia.

it's just perfect.

This is a pretty cool and different kind of documentary. The whole thing is very pretentious, much like Cave himself. That's not to say it's not good, or that Cave isn't - in fact, I think he's a genius. But yeah, pretentious. That's just the way he is, though. There's some incredible performances captured in the film, for sure. I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone who's not already a fan of Cave, or familiar with him, at the very least. It's a decent watch.

With a striking, original structure and lots of flashy professionalism in the directing and editing departments, "20,000 Days on Earth" offers an adequately insightful peer into what is, without doubt, a deeply interesting man. Although I feel it is too self-centered, it can be alternately fascinating and touching, which is no small feat. (I will agree with Neonman though in that I'm more drawn to Cave's older, less purely narrative work.)

I love Nick Cave, but didn't like this movie, was too distracted by the pompousness of the monologues.

Musician Nick Cave, on his supposed 20,000th day on Earth, reflects on his life and career, through interviews, conversations, and his fascinating music. Cave proves to be a great subject: a likable, thoughtful artist who is equally at home singing about his life in allegorical fashion, philosophizing with Kylie Minogue, and hanging out with his kids while watching SCARFACE. His ambition, to capture the elusive, the ethereal, the transcendental, makes up the thesis of this compelling film.

As self-absorbed as it's brilliant. The most private and honest portrait of a musician in recent memory.

2015-07-04 was expecting less documentary, more plot

Not a bad piece of semi-performative documentary with some interesting insights into how someone like Nick Cave works, but with not enough of this. The film is often stylised with a harsh edge, but the content itself is often very clean and un-rock 'n' roll and pales in comparison to other certain rockumentaries. I'm also not a fan of Nick Cave's new music, which is as bland and boring as this doco can be, and they take up a considerable amount of screen-time.

Insights into creativity and The Artist from a genuine crooked tree, Nick Cave. #15000DoE

There's a lot to admire in this formally adventurous, fittingly oblique, & self-mythologizing look at an appropriately mythic figure in music. But the film never punctures the cocoon of the myth but rather is soberly complicit in Cave's construction of a persona: literary, self-devouring, true believer in art & his own visions. It made me crave something more like Velvet Goldmine or (especially) Listen Up, Philip, where an artist's attempts at self-mythology are pierced by an outside perspective

It's arguable how much this can be called a documentary, however, to dwell on this point would be to overlook what is important. Cave's pomp and ego is proudly mounted on display, as we are gifted an insight into the fascinating creative mind. Cloaked in self-mythologisation, with half a foot in reality and half in some world of apeish iconism, Cave proves a most intriguing and inspiring subject

What happened Nick? You used to be cool

It looks and sounds great. It's edited and directed in a wonderfully artistic way. It's interesting throughout, quirky and emotionally resonant. Worth watching and not only for Cave enthusiasts.

"Can't remember anything at all/But I'm driving my car [...]"

Fantastic watch. Visually compelling, both disarming and idolizing the great man with his whacky hard and his ethereal songs, the wordsmith, the rebel, the ordinary man. Saw this shortly after watching One More Time With Feeling, a completely different experience.

In der Annahme, eine konventionelle Doku über den wohl beliebtesten lebenden Popmusiker der Welt, Nick Cave, wäre unbefriedigend, brachten die Macher von 20,000 Days on Earth ihre Hauptperson dazu, ihn einen fiktionalen Tag seines Lebens lang zu begleiten... mehr auf cinegeek.de

A look into the mind of an artist. Even though the story was fabricated, it still feels very real. A lot to learn about music and life in a relatively short film.

Less a documentary than an essay. "At the end of the 20th century, I ceased to be a human being." Nick Cave is one of few rock musicians both intelligent and self-obsessed enough to actually be interesting, talking about the point of art for 90 minutes. "The song is heroic, because the song confronts death. The song is immortal and bravely stares down our own extinction. The song emerges from the spirit world with a true message: One day, I will tell you how to slay the dragon."

Fascinating portrait of a fascinating person, told in an imaginative way.

Probably - if not for Nick Cave and his beautiful writing, and his wisdom, and the dark gloomy poetry - it would be just another good documentary. But well it is NC's beautiful writing, wisdom and gloomy poetry, thus it becomes something more than a mere egocentric documentary voyage. Loved it.