One More Time with Feeling

Both in its tragic subject matter and immersive form, this portrait of an artist trying to articulate his grief goes against the grain of the average music documentary. The last time we saw Nick Cave, at the close of 2014's self-mythologising 20,000 Days on Earth, the musician and writer was standing on the shores of Brighton beach, as imperious and defiant as King Canute. Two years later, we are presented with a very different man, his domestic idyll shattered and creative muse crushed by the death of one of his teenage sons, who fell from cliffs near the family home in 2015. This film is dedicated to Arthur Cave and his loss looms large over what is ostensibly a showcase for Skeleton Tree, Cave's 16th album with his band the Bad Seeds. But to call this simply a pop promo is to do it a disservice. Cave's ruminations on the trauma he and his family continue to experience are devastatingly raw and given heightened intimacy thanks to director Andrew Dominik's dazzling use of 3D photography. The moody monochrome visuals are punctuated only by a performance of album highlight Distant Sky, which literally soars into the stratosphere, offering a hint of release amid the anguish. There are moments of levity and tenderness to be had, but for all its visual beauty and poeticism, this remains an achingly sad eulogy.