Wonderful character development!

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

While I do think this was a great documentary with an interesting enough story to tell, it was slightly repetitive in spots. About a new director with budding potential named David Crowley who is mysteriously murdered while creating an admittedly provocative film about a police state with an oppressive government. The story, while repetitive at times, does a great job telling the story to the viewer, providing an easily understood story of David's personal life, his life as a promising new director, and his families unfortunate end. But as I said before, the only slight drawback is that it often repeats itself when telling the story. And we will discuss it.The film jumps around between David's personal life, his work on the film, and his murder. The issue is SOMETIMES, the story repeats itself when starting a new section. I found myself thinking that the film already explained that he was a potentially great film maker, feeling that the film repeats its to remind you of things that didn't happen too long ago for me to forget and need to be reminded. I would have also liked to hear more about his murder, which I found to be an interesting plot line that wasn't fleshed out as much as I would of hoped. But I must emphasize that these are only minor issues.Over all I would recommend the film to anyone, though some may find it to be too conspiracy theory laden, but as an avid documentary viewer, I enjoyed it.

The story does not provide any insight on any the alleged conspiracy theory, neither does it delve into the psyche of the protagonists. To me the story is nothing more than the sad unfolding of a young person's mental illness with a tragic ending. We know nothing about the protagonist's childhood, family upbringing or intimate relationships. All the movie does is interview friends and family who speculate on and on his apparently disintegrating marriage. Did he suffer from PTSD? Paranoid schizophrenia with delusions of grandeur mania? Very few concrete facts, a lot of speculation...

I never heard of this film or of the filmaker in the documentary. I saw the title on Netflix and watched it one day after work. The documentary itself was good. The subject matter was interesting. It was no murder mystery. The mystery is why did it happen. The mystery is what heppened to this man and why did the wife go into the rabbit hole with him. I never understand murder suicides and to kill your child, and wife then yourself is unrelateable to me. Especially writing in your wifes blood. Like I said it was a good dicumentary.

I was gripped from the opening scenes. Not knowing the story, it unfolded like a mystery, thanks to a solid structure from a director in control. I don't wish to diminish the content, as really, this is a very disturbing and sad story, as told through the people closest to David, the young man at the center of A Gray State. He was clearly talented but did not realize that as he was creating his debut feature film, he was really documenting his own story, one, which unfortunately, we are now all to privy to. It's a shame that the young woman who shares his journey wasn't represented more by her family, but given the situation, you can understand why they probably didn't wish to participate. As a parent, it's absolutely heartbreaking. A truly tragic story, that didn't leave any questions for me, that it might do for others. The human mind is a fragile thing, especially after trauma. There is a high degree of responsibility, however, of governments to look after those whom it exposes to war, that should last long after duty is over.