Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party
If you celebrate only one birthday this year... make sure it's Stephen Tobolowsky's
Member Reviews
Amazing find - egyptnation
Whether you know it or not you probably know who Stephen Tobolowsky is. His most famous roles are probably that of the annoying Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day ("BING!") and the diabetic Sammy Jankis in Memento. The reason I decided to rent this movie was because of the movie site /Film. Recently, Stephen has started an audio show of him telling stories of his life. Make no mistake, Stephen is a great story-teller and this movie proves it. If you want to get a feel of this movie before renting it I suggest you go to www.slashfilm.com and download one of Stephen's podcasts. I almost guarantee you will be hooked.A Delight - HouseOfGlib
Not so much a cinematic experience as 90 minutes spent with a gifted and well-traveled storyteller, Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party is the kind of movie that proves that one gifted individual can be more enthralling than a $100 million worth of special effects.
And when you include what amounts to almost 3 hours of bonus scenes (any one of which could have deservedly been featured in the finished film) the result is a DVD party you'll not regret crashing.Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party - Coco
Mr. Tobolowski and his old friend Robert Brinkmann (who met the tireless orator at a party, many years ago, where he found himself one of many unsuspecting guests suddenly caught unconsciously up in the eddy of the man’s gentle yet firm elocution), have effectively rendered an excellent one-man-show as a very odd LA curio, perhaps shot just down the road from The Anniversary Party, with its vacuous celebs swimming on E (confirming my suspicion that all actors, like addicts and alcoholics, are arrested teenagers). Allowing the birthday party idea to dictate the proceedings makes absolutely no sense to me, beyond this connection, which is improperly utilized; it was not Tobolowski’s birthday when they shot this, sorry, the not-quite-cooked premeditation all leading out from there; do you invite guests to yr birthday only to make them sit in a semi-circle of (foldout?) chairs like it were an AA meeting where only you get to share? I don’t imagine Steven really does either, but that’s just me. Many people are comparing and will continue to compare this work to Spalding Gray’s (R.I.P.). I would agree that both men have a certain necessary ability to make it feel that, as the words role off their tongues like silver marbles, each person in the audience is being spoken to directly (that is what makes this sort of thing work). What Tobolowski lacks, though, is a Jonathan Demme, Nick Broomfield, or Steven Soderbergh to make the thing sing at the edges. The fact that the extra stories on the DVD are even longer than the feature is a major plus, though. Definitely a rental. Mena Suvari shows up as herself, reminding us that every ingénue’s favorite literary character, Holden Caulfield, if he were to enter our realm and come into contact with them, instead of cheering up and falling in love would likely spit right in their blank collective face.
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Amazing find - egyptnation
Whether you know it or not you probably know who Stephen Tobolowsky is. His most famous roles are probably that of the annoying Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day ("BING!") and the diabetic Sammy Jankis in Memento. The reason I decided to rent this movie was because ...A Delight - HouseOfGlib
Not so much a cinematic experience as 90 minutes spent with a gifted and well-traveled storyteller, Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party is the kind of movie that proves that one gifted individual can be more enthralling than a $100 million worth of special ...Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party - Coco
Mr. Tobolowski and his old friend Robert Brinkmann (who met the tireless orator at a party, many years ago, where he found himself one of many unsuspecting guests suddenly caught unconsciously up in the eddy of the man’s gentle yet firm elocution), have effectively ...