And Everything Is Going Fine

I've heard the saying that a great filmmaker can make a movie about anything and it could be good, but AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE leads me to believe that this saying is either false, or, Steven Soderbergh isn't a great director. I've liked many of Soderbergh's films, and his talents are on display here, but the film is the definition of indulgences. In a time when so many good films are accused of having excesses (like Lars von Trier's shots in MELANCHOLIA), this is a film without any of von Trier's gloss, but all the indulgence in the world. For, Soderbergh here uses stock footage of monologuist Spalding Gray's interviews and shows, to create a final film for the man, a quasi-tribute that ends up just being a piece that shows nothing but an admiration. Soderbergh's editing of the hundreds of hours of footage is impressive, and done quite well, but the major edit this film needed was to cut every bit involving Gray. Gray, who committed suicide in 2004, uses a self-important droning on about his life to fill up the stage. Monologuing in general takes the focus away from the audience having a good time, to the performer having a good time, but as I watched the film, I became convinced that Gray not only did not care for his audience, but he used them as an outlet for his incessant whining. Gray's stories are all boring and long, he cannot go long without insulting himself, but he also cannot go long without praising himself. In short, I found Spalding Gray to have little to say of any importance. Furthermore, I found him to be an idiot, and couldn't stand an 89 minute movie of just an idiot talking. What I refer to in terms of indulgence is that Gray's excesses are all that he acts in, and that Soderbergh's tribute to the man is just as needlessly in unquestioned admiration.

★ out of Five