Soderbergh Marathon: Part 17

Intro

The Movies of Spalding Gray
Going through the filmography, there is one thing that is abundantly clear: the guy really, really liked Spalding Gray.  He cast him in King of the Hill, the excellent 1993 movie that I've already seen.  He featured him in Gray's Anatomy, made in 1996, which is just Gray monologuing for an hour and 20 minutes.  And he made a documentary about his life, And Everything is Going to be Fine.

I'm combining the documentary and the monologue because there's not enough to say separately about the two movies, or at least there's very little distinction on what I can say.  I'll just say: I think the appeal of Spalding Gray is a "you had to be there" thing.  He was apparently revolutionary with his monologues, which were personal and literally was just him on a stage with very little in the way of props.

I don't really get it.  And to be fair, I think this is probably a deal where it's more compelling when you're literally in the audience and he's talking to you, and not to a screen.  And in Everything is Going to be Fine, he brings up audience members which I can imagine makes for a cool experience of actually being there.

But to listen to Spalding Gray talk for 100 minutes or more, while he sits in a chair and does not really much else?  That's what Gray's Anatomy is.  Soderbergh does what he can - I really don't think he can do more than he does without it being distracting, but the simple fact is that Gray's story is just not that interesting.  Or at least the story he tells in Gray's Anatomy.  He visits a doctor about his eyes, he needs surgery, he searches for alternative surgeries, he eventually gets the surgery.  That's not a story worth the runtime of this movie.

The documentary fares better, which dispenses with a voiceover or even interviews from other people, and just lets Spalding Gray talk for himself.  Gray, who by the point of the documentary had committed suicide due to the pain from a previous car crash, tells his entire life story in interviews and in his own monologues.  So that's the documentary.

At first, I wasn't that engaged with it, but towards the end, it grabbed my attention.  That's because right around the time when he gets in the car crash, the documentary takes on this very tragic tone that moved me.  And it's entirely through hearing Gray speak himself.  And having known of his fate going in, the effectiveness starts a little earlier when he'd say things in his monologue that are tragic when you know his fate.

So if you're going to watch one Soderbergh feature about Spalding Gray, you should watch the documentary.  It also functions are sort of a "Best of" feature, as it goes through his career, and I get the feeling the monologue in Gray's Anatomy was one of his weaker ones.  Just a gut feeling on that one.
I don't know if I would necessarily recommend either though unless you're interested in Spalding Gray and his part in pop culture.  As a rule, a biopic or a documentary is usually only compelling if you're interested in the subject, and there's only so much you can do if you're not.  But the documentary is certainly a good look on his life.

Gray's Anatomy - 1.5/4 stars
And Everything Will Be Fine - 3/4 stars