Blu-ray Review: And Everything Is Going Fine: The Criterion Collection - Page 2

But what's most interesting is his gift as a storyteller, more than the actual stories themselves. He has a fearlessness and manic energy that is often hypnotically engaging. And the contrast of this oratory gusto from most of his career is set against the more beaten version of him that we see towards the end of his life.

An automobile accident in 2001 left him with several injuries, including what was eventually revealed to be damage to his skull and brain. The damage was unknown to him (as the result of a misdiagnosis), but combined with his already present depression it took its toll towards the end, until he eventually took his life in 2004.

Soderbergh was already interviewing and filming Gray by that point, as he directed the video for one of his final monologues. These images offer Gray the chance to narrate his own end and, perhaps even with the knowledge that his emotional candle was waning, summarily reflect on his work and life's journey. It's an effective and engaging look at a talented but troubled soul, and an honest film as well.

Video/Audio

And Everything Is Going Fine is a documentary in even the most technical sense. It is solely made of archival footage, exclusively narrated by its subject. The only downside to this is one of the most forgivable kind: it's made from dated media sources, complete with low resolution, inherent noise and questionable video quality. In fact, the majority of the movie had to be upscaled from these smaller definition sources. The result is something that is absolutely as good as it needs to look (and perhaps could look), as long as you're ok with that often being equivalent to a stack of VHS tapes from the '80s that you pulled from the attic.

The aged source material and strictly dialogue bent of the film don't really need any more than the lossless LPCM 1.0 audio track provided, if that. Although the dialogue is relatively clean throughout - at least relative to its source - it was never in a state that would show appreciable gain from modern lossless tracks, and especially multi-channel separation. However, it's always comforting to have an obviously definitive version, even if it's perhaps a tad overkill. The bottom line is that your experience with this film, as opposed to most of the rest of Criterion's collection, would not be practically diminished one way or another with a DVD over the Blu-ray version.

Bonus Material

Although the supplemental items provided aren't overly expansive, they are well curated. "The Making Of And Everything Is Going Fine" (HD, 20:56) features director Steven Soderbergh, producer Kathleen Russo and editor Susan Littenberg discussing the construction of the film after Gray's death. Their insights into him as a person, as well as the wealth of material they were left to sift through makes for a brief, but very interesting feature.

Article Author: David R Perry

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