Movies
Stop Making Sense
A concert movie and nothing more, and as narrowly focussed a one as ever was: little of the live audience, nothing of the backstage, only the on-stage. In fairness, the movie (directed by Jonathan Demme) is probably better to look at than most concert movies, and the concert (staged by David Byrne) is probably better to look at than most mere concerts. But in the long run, neither the staging of the concert nor the filming of it, nor both those efforts put together, is inventive enough or distracting enough to take center-stage from the music. And it can easily seem a very long run indeed, with too much of the music stuck in the general area of dental-drill-punctuated-by-indecipherable-cries-from-the-patient. To say that enjoyment of the Talking Heads' music will be a help to enjoyment of their movie would be to understate comically. To say a strict prerequisite would perhaps get nearer the case. 1984.
Reader Rating:
MPAA Rating: NR
Length: 1 hour, 28 minutes