Stop Making Sense (1984/1999 Rerelease) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/ Member: Online Film Critics Society
***1/2 out of four
"Into the blue again/After the money's gone Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground"
Starring David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, Steven Scales. Not Rated (nothing offensive).
As music films go it seems to be an accepted fact that Stop Making Sense is second to none. The Talking Heads concert film has been out of circulation for a long time, but it is now getting a theatrical rerelease on its 15th birthday. On a dazzling restored print it's all the better: an electrifying rock experience. Jonathan Demme's (The Silence of the Lambs) film has it all: great music given a backbone of top-notch camerawork and editing.
The music is courtesy of Talking Heads, a popular Rock/New Wave band evidently proclaimed by some to be the most influential of the 80s. Its lead singer David Byrne is that rare breed: a stage presence both enigmatic and energetic. Most of the fun of Stop Making Sense comes from watching Byrne's on stage antics as he and his band jubilantly plow through 15 of their own songs. The songs, I admit, are not all superlative: some are redundant and others just didn't appeal to me, but as a whole I was impressed with the Talking Heads' (whom I've never heard before I first saw the original version of the film a couple years ago, by the way) repertoire.
This is an unusual concert film. There are barely ever any audience reaction shots or music video intercuts: the camera focuses solely on the band. It's very much a better movie for it; these kinds of songs are better watched than listened to and frequent cuts away from the action would have heavily distracted from the kinetic performance the Talking Heads put on. Jonathan Demme made sure the film would be pure with no artificial tricks (now accepting thank-you notes for not saying "flavors") by the camera or by anything else.
The highlight of the show is a number called "Once in a Lifetime". Byrne, looking unnervingly like Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird, sings the Talking Heads' most distinctive song; a hypnotic intercutting of a wonderful melody and something I can only describe as chanting. The lyrics, too, are something to think about. They come off as gibberish at first but, like most of their work, after a little pondering, they begin to make sense.
If I put in a CD and listened to the music of the Talking Heads for 90 minutes, I would be bored. If I watched a 90 minute Talking Heads music video I would be bored. Stop Making Sense, while simple, enchanted me. It's just like watching a concert, yes, but what a concert it is! I've never seen a musical group put on a better show and I've never seen a show's spirit captured better than this.
See it. See it now. See it while you have the benefit of the big screen and the surround sound. See it while you have the opportunity to watch it as it was meant to be, with a brand new, restored print. Don't let the "concert film" idea throw you off; most "regular" films can only dream of being as good as Stop Making Sense. ©1999 Eugene Novikov‰
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