Bill Hader Takes Center Stage in Documentary Now‘s Spalding Gray Parody

In one of the episode’s funniest moments, Hader deadpans the camera directly, snapping his head in different directions—left-right-left-up-down—all while directors Alex Buono and Rhys Thomas use their cameras to over-exaggerate Gray’s minimal, but theatrical movements in the film. Conversely, we were disappointed in the music for the episode. Laurie Anderson composed and performed Swimming to Cambodia’s score, which is dramatic and attention-grabbing. The episode’s score tries to emulate Anderson, but the music and sound design are too restrained to make any meaningful impact.

Although “Parker Gail’s Location is Everything” remains faithful to Demme’s version, the writers and directors change enough for the episode to stand alone as a solid piece of comedy. Hader captures the monologist’s tics and thick Blue Blooded Rhode Island accent perfectly as he shares the “tragic” tale about losing his apartment and having to find another because of a Stereo City being built on the property. Gail rants, raves and free associates about his life and his relationships all while behind the desk. However, instead of staying a true one-man show, Documentary Now introduces other characters, who pop-up and sit at their own spare desks onstage. The cameras and the spotlights turn to them as they offer their contradictory versions of Gail’s stories. We appreciate the drastic change here from the film; while Hader is highly entertaining, the monotony of Gail’s monologue is pleasantly broken up by these guests.

Gail’s girlfriend, Ramona (Lennon Parham), not only explains what really happened in their relationship, but also reveals that his “tumultuous” childhood might have been anything but. “He was 30 was his parents got divorced,” she says, exasperated. A subway turnstile worker (June Carryl) calls BS on Gail’s version of their encounter when Gail didn’t have enough money to ride the subway. The subway attendant conveys disgust and annoyance at Gail’s first world problem—having to move from one loft to another loft. “God give me the strength to deal with these people because I cannot!” she says. Other guests take turns on stage tearing down aspects of Gail’s performance piece, but it doesn’t phase him. Hader is perfect playing a performer without an iota of self-awareness, but with an overabundance of ego. He delivers the best lines (“I free associated so hard that I shit my pants”) without a smirk on his face, humorously reinforcing the fact that he lives in his own reality.

Viewers don’t find out until the end of the episode that there’s a big reason why Documentary Now diverges from the film in its opening scene. The directors discard Gray’s “dramatic” entrance walking down the New York street, into the theater and through the audience. We don’t see the audience until the very end—but once we see them, we realize that it’s all been part of the punchline that the episode’s been working toward all along. Documentary Now proves with “Parker Gail’s Location is Everything” that it’s not afraid to take chances and play the long game for a joke, even with documentaries that focus on serious subject matter. Week-after-week, the show manages to mine its source material for the comedy nuggets all while still honoring the spirit of the original.