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David Byrne has said before that even he doesn't understand his songs, his music, or his art. True Stories seems to offer an interesting look in his head. For instance, Byrne has said in the past that he writes songs by doing the instruments, using gibberish for the melody, then replacing it with lyrics as he writes them. We see John Goodman's character halfway through this process. The movie is clearly Byrne's singular vision, and probably a beginning symptom of his increasing dismissiveness of his bandmates that culminated in their split five years later. The non-musical majority this movie seems to be made from looking through Weekly World News, pulling random stuff out, and making characters out of it. Along the way, the songs that become the album True Stories are presented here, but performed by the characters. Byrne certainly knows how to pick talent: Spalding Gray, Pops Staples, John Goodman (who is a better singer than you think), and his own band all get musical numbers. One of the most interesting musical numbers came from Anne McEnroe, a "seen her around" actress. The musical segments are all very cool, in a weird 80s sort of way. However, I'm going to give this movie a less-than-stellar rating, and here's why. For me, no matter how artful or colorful or creative a movie may be, the most important attribute a movie can have is making the viewer want to keep watching. Frankly, I found everything in this movie except the music boring. I think it's the presentation and the production design. I just felt like the characters and I were both sitting around waiting for the next big scene. While it's admirable that Byrne clearly put a lot of work into this project, and there are some great musical numbers here, the simple truth is that the movie bored me, and that's really what's going to determine whether I'll want to watch it again. 2/5
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Sep 6, 2007 00:14
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 07:39 |
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