And Everything Is Going Fine

Steven Soderbergh's 2010 documentary is about the monologuist Spalding Gray. Gray sat alone on stage and told his own life; the documentary conducts no new interview and consists solely of recordings of him spanning forty years. That method is the film's real idea. Gray had already narrated his life; Soderbergh assembles an autobiography by arranging the pieces chronologically. There is no narration, no commenting guest, and the sole narrator is a dead man. Gray took his own life in 2004, and the documentary does not state it directly; but across the recordings death, depression and his mother's suicide keep returning. The result is a portrait made heavier by watching it knowing what happened. Who it's for: those curious about documentary form and the tradition of solo theatre. Who it's not for: viewers sensitive to suicide and depression; these are the recurring subject of the narrative.