MovieChat Forums > Bongwater (2013) Discussion > Serena is Courtney Love

Serena is Courtney Love


I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere on this board yet, but the Serena character is based on Courtney Love, who the author Michael Hornburg knew in her Portland days. And yes, the book is MUCH better than the movie, and the C.Love similarities are more obvious.

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saying the book is MUCH better than the movie is like saying you're the best ice hockey player in Ecuador... not hard to claim! awful movie; too awful for even a bad movie night. the book has a few good moments, but the ending is so poor i felt cheated after reading it.

if Serena is based on C.L. then the author should have created a character half as interesting as Courtney's real life train-wreck... he didn't.

...but go watch the movie anyway... 4 STARS!!! =;-)

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Courtney LOVES to sue people, so I'm pretty sure they tried to avoid that. Apparently, she was not to pleased with his description of her in the book. And yes, the book was A LOT better.


"You're such a pillow case!"-Heathers

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am i the only one who is literally SHOCKED this movie has.....a BOOK??? really?? a book? right. your kidding, right? and people read it? sorry..i bet the book is better....it could be 1000 pages glued together and dipped in goats blood and it would still be better than this movie.
but nonetheless, its a rad movie..if you are on verge of death from boredom.

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I can see that, the Serena character seemed determined to sleep her way to the top of the Rock Star hierarchy. Courtney Love leeched off Kurt Cobain's fame and fortune. If this is true, then I wonder who the character of "FENTON" was based on. Was there really a famous Rocker in New York City who was a date rapist?

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I saw this film years ago and wasn't aware of this, but now knowing more about Courtney's biography, it's very clearly her. If you take the events of the book/film and lay them next to Courtney's early life, it's almost verbatim. You can tell by tracking the geographical moves Serena/Courtney makes, bouncing around from Portland to New York to San Francisco (Tony and Robert say at the end before David finds her on the rooftop that she's "probably back in San Francisco"). It's clear that Hornburg was around her at this distinct point in her life, probably just around the time she'd gone to New York to be in "Sid & Nancy," ca. 1985 or so. There's no doubt in my mind he had a relationship with her, and that this character is 100% based on her.

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