Too Much Sleep Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Too Much Sleep Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 8, 2024

To paraphrase a legendary line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, physical media may not be quite "dead yet", as this appealing new release from fledgling label and distributor Whole Grain Pictures proves. A supplement on this disc gives a brief overview of this film's kind of tortured history which included a low (no?) budget shoot followed by what seemed like a veritable Deus ex Machina distribution deal that got the film screened nationally to rather rapturous reviews (at least from some), only to have the distributor suddenly go bankrupt, resulting in the quick disappearance of the film. Through rather lucky circumstances, writer and director David Maquiling was able to rescue at least some elements from the distributor's office before the creditors closed in, but he then spent years (decades?) trying to wrest back control over his film. In another stroke of (ultimate) good luck, a film school kid named Justin Sevakis had seen and fallen in love with Too Much Sleep, and when he decided to form a "boutique Blu-ray label" after years toiling in the anime market, he knew what he wanted his first release to be, reaching out to a stunned Maquiling. In short order another slice of figurative manna from heaven arrived when out of nowhere the original camera negative of Too Much Sleep was discovered (after Whole Grain had already done a restoration off of a scan of a print). If the film itself is arguably going to be (to quote the making of supplement) "too specific" for some tastes, for those with dry, deadpan senses of humor, and especially those with some experience in the wild and wooly suburbs of New Jersey, Too Much Sleep may provide a delightfully off kilter viewing experience.

In the making of supplement Maquiling reminisces about being regaled with tales of a quasi-slacker by his father, which may have inspired Maquiling's focal character Jack Crawford (Marc Palmieri). Jack is introduced playing hooky from work while still living with his mother in his mid twenties, but ultimately his job as a night watchman or something similar is in jeopardy anyway when a gorgeous girl on a bus distracts him and he loses the gun that has improbably been placed in his possession by his employer. That sends him off on a completely wacky quest which allows the film to journey from vignette to vignette with a decidedly odd aggregation of characters. Some of the humor here is definitely envelope pushing, probably more so for contemporary audiences with more of a PC (and/or un-PC) sensibility, and more likely than not some of the jokes kind of surrounding ethnic or national stereotypes may chafe.

In that regard, and speaking of Monty Python, I just had the great good fortune to see the venerable John Cleese live in performance here in my hometown of Portland, where he began things with perhaps the greatest opening line for a Portland audience I've ever heard, "You're probably wondering why I'm performing here on the outskirts of Seattle". But then Cleese went on to deconstruct "outrage" at various jokes about a variety of ethnicities and nationalities, offering frankly hilarious examples in each "category", as if to suggest, "Hey, folks, we have to be able to laugh at things". For those similarly inclined, Too Much Sleep may provide at least some wry black comedy smiles if not outright hilarity, though I actually laughed out loud at some of the predicaments Jack gets into.

There's a pull quote on the back cover of this release comparing Too Much Sleep to After Hours, and that struck me personally as a particularly apt comparison. Sometime after that sadly kind of under recognized Scorsese comedy came out, I saw it in some kind of "second run" art house and had a moment of hilarious revelation when star Griffin Dunne is put through a nightmarish sequence of events, only to fall to his knees in a New York alley and call to some unseen force of fate, "I'm just a word processor". That line was a direct bullseye for me at that moment because I was actually working as a temp in that very word processing capacity, and absolutely loathed it. Now, I doubt anyone is going to feel a "career" connection to what Jack goes through, but they may still completely understand the feeling of having lost even any fleeting perception of control over one's life.

Too Much Sleep Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Too Much Sleep is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Whole Grain Pictures with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. As is covered in the interesting making of documentary and as mentioned above, Whole Grain had actually evidently already sprung for a 2K scan of a print or some other secondary element when kind of magically the original camera negative was discovered, which Whole Grain then had scanned in 4K. The result is hugely appealing, if it's understood this was a micro budgeted feature shot on location and has little if any "wow" factor in the visuals. Still, the palette is beautifully suffused most of the time (blues are especially evocative), and detail levels tend to be excellent as well, supported by the frequent use of at least occasionally askew close-ups. True to this fledgling label's name, grain is intact and resolves naturally.

Too Much Sleep Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Too Much Sleep features an enjoyable LPCM 2.0 track that is buoyed by a kind of Mark Knopfler-esque guitar score by Mitchell Toomey as well as several more folk rock Byrds-ish material by a variety of artists. Outdoor locations feature good background spill of ambient environmental effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Too Much Sleep Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Story of Too Much Sleep (HD; 19:23) also turns out to be the story of Whole Grain Pictures in this appealing overview.


• Commentary with Director David Maquiling and Star Marc Palmieri


• Trailer (HD; 1:25)


• Finding Uncle Eddie (HD; 5:00) looks at the casting of co-star Pasquale Gaeta.


• Isolated Score is presented in LPCM 2.0 and is accessible under the Setup Menu. This is actually an isolated score and effects track.

A brief "coming attractions" supplement gives a bit more information on Whole Grain Pictures.

Too Much Sleep Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You have to kind of love a label whose first release starts with a sweetly polite request not to rip a copy of the disc, rather than that foreboding FBI warning. Even better, Whole Grain Pictures' first Blu-ray is itself kind of sweet, if occasionally rather impolite in some of its charged, potentially un-PC, humor. Palmieri's hangdog expression perfectly encapsulates a trip to whatever the New Jersey version of Wonderland (?) might be. Technical merits are solid, and the supplements are very enjoyable. Recommended.