Rating: Summary: Soderbergh destroys Gray Review: Steven Soderbergh apparently had no faith in Gray's storytelling skills, so you get 30 minutes of Gray, and 30 minutes of videotape of some people commenting on him. WHAT A WASTE! Ignore Gray's Anatomy, and check out Swimming to Cambodia, Monster in a Box, or even the HBO special Terrors of Pleasure. You'll get more Gray without the incessant need of Soderbergh to "liven" up Gray's monologue. These other films are Gray and Gray alone. He doesn't need an intrusive, meddling heavy hand like Soderbergh. Ugh.
Rating: Summary: Soderbergh destroys Gray Review: Steven Soderbergh apparently had no faith in Gray's storytelling skills, so you get 30 minutes of Gray, and 30 minutes of videotape of some people commenting on him. WHAT A WASTE! Ignore Gray's Anatomy, and check out Swimming to Cambodia, Monster in a Box, or even the HBO special Terrors of Pleasure. You'll get more Gray without the incessant need of Soderbergh to "liven" up Gray's monologue. These other films are Gray and Gray alone. He doesn't need an intrusive, meddling heavy hand like Soderbergh. Ugh.
Rating: Summary: The art of story telling Review: This is a wonderful example of the 'gift of gab' - that is, the art of telling a story. Spalding Gray has a story to tell - mind you, the plot is not nearly as interesting as, say, a Jedi Knight fighting a battle in a galaxy far, far away. It is not so much what he has to say, but how he says it. If one of your favorite childhood memories includes sitting around a campfire listening to someone spinning a yarn about a headless ghost, then you might enjoy this more adult version of a scary story. Substitute the encounter with a headless horseman with an even more frightening trip to see a doctor to diagnose an incurable medical condition and you may start to understand this movie. It was fascinating listening to his tangential logic, flashbacks, and digressions of a gifted story teller. It is also somewhat of an insight into the mind Spalding Gray, whose favorite story was the life experience he gained by walking around Washington Square Park several times, breathing in all of life's drama.
Rating: Summary: Better every time I watch it Review: This is the story of a very neurotic man who can't cope with having something wrong with his eye. I loved this movie. Spalding Gray is funny, smart, insightful, and full of angst. He manages to make his anxieties hillarious. I loved the way this movie was edited. I loved the intercut anecdotes of strange things that have happened to people's eyes, the commentary on the movie, and the visual representations of Spalding's journey to ever more bizarre alternative healers. I have seen the movie four times, and it just keeps on getting better.
Rating: Summary: Appealing with a touch of scraping Review: Unlike Demme's approach with Swimming to Cambodia, which, like Stop Making Sense, tried to capture the essence of a live performance, Soderberg tries to get inside Gray's head, crawl out and display what's in there. That I prefer Swimming to Cambodia is not too much of a criticism as Gray's Anatomy has a lot going for it. The whole thing is carried by Spalding's energy, wit and charisma and if the stylistic, visual tropes detract from Spalding's natural performance they are at least imaginatively conceived. I liked the vox pops inserts, but (having read the book version) I was dismayed that their addition seemed to mean that a whole chunk of the monologue was ommited (Gray's marriage to Renee). However, on the basis of Grays Anatomy and Swimming to Cambodia (I have Monster in a box on order) I wish more of his monologues were filmed - one a year would do me fine.
|