I'll admit a general ignorance, prior to this film, about Spalding Gray as a person, as well as his work. An actor who is primarily known for autobiographical monologues generally isn't someone who bubbles to the top of public consciousness. It's a smaller theater crowd, although he was perhaps as well known as someone in that discipline could be. Be that as it may, this film is primarily a documentary, which makes it superbly suited for both myself and anyone else looking for a crash course on Mr. Gray. But even more than that, I was surprised at how immediately I found it engaging, given that I was starting at the ground floor....more

Going to the movie theater today to see an action movie or a thriller, one isn't surprised to see something impossibly over the top and utterly ridiculous take place.  Regularly, one requires a greater degree of suspension of disbelief than they may have in the past – huge CGI monsters blend perfectly with that which is real, things leap off the screen in full 3D glory, and blood flies in all directions.  Film has always, to some extent, been about spectacle, and as our technology has evolved, the level of spectacle has only increased....more

Several years after the 2004 death of actor and writer Spalding Gray, Steven Soderbergh was approached by Gray’s widow, Kathleen Russo, to tell Gray’s life story through a documentary film. Soderbergh was a natural choice, as the director had previously helmed an acclaimed cinematic adaptation of one of Gray’s monologues, Gray’s Anatomy (1997). Gray had, in fact, built his reputation with his autobiographical monologues, performed on stage as sparsely produced one-man shows. Soderbergh accepted the challenge and the result was And Everything is Going Fine, released in 2010 and now on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection....more

Universal Pictures is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. And in doing so it is releasing some of its greatest films. This release is a Blu-ray/DVD Combo pack of The Deer Hunter, which won five Academy Awards and stars a number of now-famous actors, Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and Meryl Streep....more

Don’t let the idea of watching a movie that consists of little more than one man telling a story put you off from watching Gray’s Anatomy. Already a relatively short feature film at 79 minutes, once Spalding Gray begins telling his story, the time seems to fly right by. Gray originally wrote the monologue as a stage presentation. Telling very long, very personal monologues about his life was Gray’s primary stock in trade. Director Steven Soderbergh adapted a pared-down version of the monologue for this 1997 release. With the exception of a handful of interviewees who open the film with their personal stories of horrific eye trauma (which are almost certain to make the viewer squirm anxiously), Gray’s Anatomy is a one-man show....more

The films of Italian director Lina Wertmüller are blistering political satires filtered through the lens of a sex comedy — laughs and heartache coexist, but she’s not afraid to unleash a wholly downbeat denouement as the fun fades. Now available on Blu-ray are three films from an exceptionally productive period of her career — The Seduction of Mimì, Love and Anarchy and All Screwed Up — each granted a sparkling new transfer. You’re out of luck if you were hoping for much in the way of extras though....more

Hercule Poirot and I have a long and complicated history.  I read some of the classic novels at a relatively young age and distinctly remember the introduction to the first David Suchet Poirot episode on Mystery! way back when.  I had such a great affection for Agatha Christie's Belgian detective that in school I chose him for a class assignment that required us to portray a literary character....more

Similar to his Scenes from a Marriage (1973), Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander began as a Swedish television miniseries and had its runtime shortened for an international theatrical release. The title is curious because young Fanny (Pernilla Allwin) is almost inconsequential to the story in contrast to her older brother Alexander (Bertil Guve), standing in for Bergman in this autobiographical tale, who plays a major role. The film was promoted as his final theatrical release, which soon proved to be inaccurate, and won four Academy Awards: Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography (Sven Nykvist), Best Art Direction (Anna Asp, Susanne Lingheim), and Costume Design (Marik Vos-Lundh). Like Scenes, Criterion makes available both versions of the project in a single set....more

Resurrection of the Daleks is serial four of Doctor Who's 21st season. Intended to be four half hour episodes, but aired as two full-hour installments because of the 1984 Olympics, the tale begins with The Doctor (Peter Davison), Tegan (Janet Fielding), and Turlough (Mark Strickson) dragged through a time corridor to London circa present day (present for when the episode aired). There they encounter old enemies, the Daleks, who have come for their creator, Davros (Terry Molloy), hoping he can save them from a deadly disease....more

One of the latest Doctor Who serials to get the Special Edition DVD treatment is the fifth serial of season six, "The Seeds of Death." Originally aired in six installments from January through March of 1969, "The Seeds of Death" is set only about a century into the future, at the end of the 21st century. On this Earth, transportation has become so simple due to the invention of the T-Mat, a teleporting device, that mankind has grown lazy, and stopped exploring space. This spells bad news when the T-Mat system goes down, stranding people on the moon....more