Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party (2005)
I know who Stephen Tobolowsky is.
I think everyone does. He's been in over a hundred
movies and appeared on a bunch of TV shows. You may
not know his name, but if you see his face, you'll
know him. He's one of America's most interesting B-
list actors.
In "Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday
Party," director Kevin Brinkman, best known as a Hollywood
cinematographer, turns his camera on this well-known
face and we get 90 minutes of nothing but talking
head. That's all this film is. Tobolowsky talks and
talks and talks.
Tobolowsky has some interesting
stories, to be sure. He was held hostage at gunpoint
in Dallas, before he became such a well-known face,
he is one of "Buzz" magazines' "100 Coolest People
in L.A.," he's been in a rock band, he's been in a
bunch of stage plays, he's been on acid, and he's
been in films like "Bird on a Wire," "Great Balls
of Fire," and "Mississippi Burning." In fact, his
most compelling story concerns an incident that occurred
while lensing the latter film.
But most of the stories here have
no punchline, no point, no whippity-bam. They just
sort of end. Tobolowsky is a master storyteller, no
doubt. He can hold you on the edge of your seat while
he rambles on with what seems like a very interesting
anecdote. Trouble is, you end up just hanging there.
Only a couple of these stories have a point to really
put the zing in the telling.
Another problem is that Brinkman
seems so enamoured with his subject that he doesn't
feel the need to create a real movie here. His images
are crisp and clean but they add nothing to the proceedings.
An opening scene on the beach gives us the impression
that perhaps there will be some interesting visuals
but, alas, the film really just denigrates into a
talking head production. And with no visuals to engage
us, and Tobolowsky droning on and on, eventually we
just get a bit of a headache. Some of the stories
are good but they desperately need something to punch
them up and Brinkman seems incapable of adding anything
visually here.
"Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party"
isn't unwatchable. It's just trying at times. And
while I like the actor, I kind of wish he would have
hired a writer to help him with his monologues. Then
maybe I would have been happier that I RSVP'ed.
Notes:
With Men Suvari and Ann Hearn, Tobolowsky's
wife.
All the music in the film is performed
by Tobolowsky.
Viewed at SXSW in March 2005 with
Brinkman in attendance. During a Q&A after the film,
he told us that no distributor was interested in the
film.
He also told us that it was filmed
in three days, it was not filmed on Tobolowsky's birthday,
and that they filmed all of the stories at the film's
locales (in a kitchen, at a BBQ pit, in a living room
with guests). He told us that these were the only
lies in the film, that all of Tobolowsky's stories
were true and that he had heard them many times. All
of the stories are first-hand accounts of incidents
that really happened to Tobolowsky, there are no stories
about things he has heard.
