Josh Gillam’s review published on Letterboxd:
Spalding Gray brought his third one man show to the screen with the help of director Steven Soderbergh, exploring how a fateful medical diagnosis led the actor to all kinds of eccentric alternative treatments in his quest to avoid an operation.
Gray was an incredibly charismatic speaker, and that offbeat personality comes across in the unique way this material’s performed. His vivid storytelling style really draws you in, shaping a range of true-life experiences into a quirky (and often bittersweet) personal account.
It’s a credit to Gray’s talent for tale-spinning that he can take seemingly random anecdotes and weave them together so skilfully, bringing all sorts of eccentric places and people to life over this journey. Ultimately this is all really a peak into the workings of his mind, Grey’s own neuroses and hang ups charted through these stories.
It manages to pack a lot in underneath here, all complimented by Soderbergh’s inventive way of adapting the original show. Slightly surreal lighting and camera techniques get across his ideas about vision and perspective, managing to match Gray’s distinctive way of looking at the world.
It’s a great watch, but maybe isn’t quite one that completely sticks with you afterwards. There’s something a little too small scale about the story being told here: I think that (along with some overly self-aware editing choices) stops everything from completely resonating, but this nevertheless manages to feel very engaging.
The combination of Gray’s colourful personality and Soderbergh’s vision works well here, a frank and witty one man show filled with their unique touch.
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