Too many fans seem to be blown away

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A Disappointing Continuation

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The late and truly great Spalding Gray wrote and performed a number of brilliant monologues made into films by significant directors but none really better than "...Cambodia". Jonathan Demme and his cinematographer John Bailey ("Silverado"), as well as composer/"new wave" artist Laurie Anderson, perfectly complement Gray's vision of the here and there, the then and now, as well as history and movie-reality as he talks beautifully and insightfully and with deathly funny vision for over eighty minutes. It's a history lesson, a making-of-"The Killing Fields" and a perfectly bizarre philosophical treatise all at once. Roger Ebert once opined that "My Dinner With Andre" made a good counter-point double feature with "2001". I agree. Then watch Gray's "...Cambodia" after, maybe, "Star Wars"; great movies are wonderful things and come in many shapes and sizes.

Spalding's 'Swimming to Cambodia' defies the preconceptions often brought to a movie: we get to see one man at a desk, with a lamp and a glass of water, and a map of Cambodia with a pointer to help. And then Gray's amazing ability to hook the listener into his amazing free improvised anecdotes makes it worth a thousand blockbusters. Demme's film prior to this was 'Something Wild'... this is wilder and wittier. Do yourself a favour and watch. Spalding's tragic suicide last year brings a poignant edge to many of his existential observations, but this is uplifting, entertaining, funny and harrowing all in one. And it's a monologue. Sam Shephard once said it was impossible to compare anyone to Spalding, so unique was he. Here's the proof.

Spalding Gray is an amazing orator. They way he can interweave various story aspects into a narrative patchwork is riveting. As you can tell I'm a big fan of his work and this is probably his best. Directed by Jonathan Demme in a no frills to the bone style. The star of this concert isn't demme or gray, it's the elocution.

Spalding Gray calls his version of performance art a "talking cure." The facts, opinions, insights, fears and hopes drawn from the epiphany he received from his experiences in the Asian Rim shooting "The Killing Fields" and his education of the plight of the Cambodian people circa early to mid seventies is overwhelming. This is a story of the human condition as told by a master. He is Dr. Frankenstein creating the monster that is ourselves through a tapestry of wordplay that never seems overwrought or cumbersome in the slightest. This movie is one man reading from a standard notebook, behind a plain table accented with a glass of water and shadowed by a ceiling fan and selection of maps. Demme's use of lighting and Laurie Anderson's soundtrack provide all the dramatic power needed to sustain Gray as he literally helps us all better understand life, humanity and our responsibilities to each other while we spend time on this planet. Intense, funny, heartbreaking and invigorating; this movie inspires and changes all who watch it.