Monster in a Box (1992)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Nick Broomfield

Writer:

Spalding Gray (writer)

Release Date:

June 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

He Survived "Swimming to Cambodia." Now The Adventure Continues.

Plot:

This is the story of Spalding Gray and his attempt to write a novel. It is a first person account about writing and living...

Plot Keywords:

Writing | Live Performance | One Man Show | Monologue | Based On Play

Cast

Spalding Gray

...

Himself

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

UK:PG | Australia:PG | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

Channel Four Films

Trivia:

The unnamed child who projectile vomited on stage at Lincoln Center's run of "Our Town" was Shane Culkin.

Movie Connections:

References Swimming to Cambodia (1987)

A man has to have an interesting persona, to get the audience interested

in his descriptions of CAA, platinum card lunches in Hollywood, psychoanalysis, a vacation in Provincetown he never took, and free trips to Nicaragua, financed by Columbia pictures.

It sounds narcissistic, but Spalding Gray (possibly because of his unusual personality) ropes the audience in, laughs at himself (perhaps because he did not take the Hollywood thing oh-so-seriously) and gets us to care.

This monologue is not just about "The Killing Fields", or "Swimming to Cambodia"; it is more a pastiche of events, as he sees them. Some of the lines are classic, as when Gray meets with the esteemed talent agents at CAA. The conference table is ..."full of them, tanned, healthy, fresh from drinking blue-green algae from an Oregon lake...there are no drugs now in Hollywood".

This was before the tragedy occurred. Many of us will miss his off-balance humor. 9/10.