Review - Stop Making Sense
Directed by: Jonathan Demme
Conceived for the Stage by: David Byrne
Starring: David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison, Chris Frantz, Steve Scales, Lynn Mabry, Ednah Holt, Alex Weir, Bernie Worrell
Running Time: 88 Minutes
Rating: 5/5
In the pantheon of music concert documentaries, there’s an infectious kinetic energy to Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense that has been hard to replicate for nearly 40 years. From “Psycho Killer,” to “Burning Down The House,” and “Once in a Lifetime,” each song in this seminal cinematic collaboration between Demme and Talking Heads has been given new life via A24 with TIFF premiering a brand new 4k restoration of the film.
Filmed over three nights at the Pantages Theater during the Talking Heads 1983 “Speaking in Tongues” tour, Stop Making Sense doesn’t just serve as a time capsule that immortalized the band arguably at their sonic and creative peak, but a celebration of music and community, ensnaring its audience through song and dance over its 90-minute runtime.
When Stop Making Sense was announced as a festival selection, it immediately became a high priority screening to attend. Personally, the film has been a cathartic experience upon every viewing for me (I admit to getting teary eyed during “Naïve Melody” when David Byrne dances with the lamp), but more notably, the premiere would also mark a reunion of all four Talking Heads members (David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison, and Chris Frantz), who hadn’t been together in the same room since their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2002.
Unfortunately, the latter announcement became the bane of my festival experience, as I struggled to obtain a ticket, as did many non-Contributor level and below TIFF members, settling for the second public screening, days after the reunion pomp and circumstance had passed. Though that once in a lifetime chance slipped away, by the time Steve Scales’ bongos on “Slippery People” piped through the IMAX auditorium speakers, all those feelings faded away. Though it was reported during the premiere that the audience, including Spike Lee, leapt up from their seats to dance, I wish the crowd in my screening shared that same enthusiasm. Instead, a lot of likeminded fans seated around me felt more than comfortable grooving out on their own and singing along.
Stop Making Sense is just emphatically engaging from its first frame, with Pablo Ferro’s iconic title credits, to the reveal of Byrne’s iconic big suit in “Girlfriend is Better.” To marvel at this phenomenal restoration, visually supervised by American Zoetrope’s James Mockoski, and Harrison assisting with a new Atmos mix from the original digital recordings (which is why the audio sounds just as crisp as it did 40 years ago), it’s the best that Stop Making Sense will ever look and sound to audiences old and new.
