April 30, 2010: And Everything Is Going Fine
Before seeing And Everything Is Going Fine, I vaguely knew who Spalding Gray was, but really knew nothing of what he did. After seeing it, I have a much better idea of what a unique person he was, so honest and forthcoming that all he had to do was sit there and talk about his life, and people would come to listen.
This documentary about the man, presented as part of the Hot Docs documentary film festival in Toronto, was directed by Steven Soderbergh. Many of the film directors attend these festivals and do Q&A sessions after the screenings, but alas, Soderbergh was too busy to attend. No matter. What he has put together stands on its own.
Spalding Gray passed away in 2004 following a decades-long struggle with depression and suicidal throughts, and a much shorter period of physical disablement due to a serious car crash. He disappeared from his New York City home, and turned up dead a couple of months later, a suspected suicide. Since he first achieved fame in the late 1960s, he had recorded several monologues in front of live audiences, as well as several interviews by promiment media figures. The film consists almost entirely of this intercut footage from various stages in his life. We see his changing perspective on the world as the decades pass, and his continuing struggles, with the themes tied together by proximity of the clips. There is no voiceover, and no explicit framework for the film.
And Everything Is Going Fine struck me as being a suitable introduction to anyone who is unfamiliar with Gray and his life, and a respectful summary of how he touched people’s lives through his acting and particularly his speaking.
A loving tribute to a man.
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