Delayed Reaction: Stop Making Sense

The Pitch: Everyone should be able to experience a Talking Heads concert.

A Talking Heads concert movie.

Concert movies are tricky to talk about. There's only so much you can do with them. More recent takes have been to make them documentaries about the artist's life and cut that with performances. That runs the risk of the two elements competing with each other. Either I'm annoyed because I want to know more about Katy Perry's story or I'm annoyed because - just get to Firework already! The classic approach is the simplest: record a concert with a few cameras and hope that the show can sustain an audience's interest. The risk of that is that the viewer has to like the music.

So, guess what? If you don't like The Talking Heads, you won't like Stop Making Sense. If you are on the fence about them, this concert movie is a great sales pitch for them. I've always been pretty indifferent about The Talking Heads. I wouldn't chose to ever listen to them, but I wouldn't turn one of their songs off if one started playing. I sure enjoyed Stop Making Sense though. That was a lively show. David Byrne wore me out with his oddball dance moves. I didn't realize how large the group was either. That gave director Jonathan Demme a lot to work with. Demme doesn't get fancy with the camerawork all that often. He only shoots from a few different angles, but he knows went to linger and when to jump between different shots.

In general, I hate listening to live versions of songs. If all I'm doing is listening, I'd rather hear the fully produced work. I don't mind as much when I watching a band play a song live though. I get to see all the parts and people involved in making the sounds. It's easy to get lost in the moment.

For what it is, I liked this movie a lot. More than I expected. The Talking Heads have a familiar catalog of songs. They play them well. This concert gets weirder the longer it goes on. The film is a tight 90 minutes. I have no complaints.

One Final Thought: Am I the only one who thinks young David Byrne has an uncanny resemblance to Cillian Murphy? Maybe with a little Paul Dano in there as well.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend*

*You know, unless you hate The Talking Heads