Starring: Jo Harvey Allen, Freeman Beatty, Evelyn Box, Kevin Box, Amy Buffington Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Pan & Scan Region Code: 1 Release Date: March 30, 1999 Running Time: 90 minutes Theatrical Release Date: October 10, 1986
Amazon.com: Truly quirky, this mock documentary is part musical, part farce, and completely, oddly innocent. This is a one-man-band job for David Byrne (lead singer of the Talking Heads), who writes, stars, and directs, It's ostensibly about the sesquicentennial celebration of a small Texas town, but it's really about strange characters and strange attitudes. Byrne is our guide, driving us around and giving tour information about Texas in an innocuous patter, frequently running into Louis Fyne (John Goodman), a lonely man looking for love. At various times, and with little provocation, the film swoons into a Talking Heads number with preachers and bar patrons belting out tunes. If you make room for it, however, True Stories can surprise and delight with its inventiveness and its unconventional treatment of the residents. A scene in which a construction worker launches into an aria, on a makeshift stage when no one else is around, is but one example of numerous such moments in this bizarre, delightful, and benign film. Any Talking Heads fan who doesn't own it should. --Keith Simanton
Pathologically Texas The extremely influential band Talking Heads had begun to self-destruct by 1986, and in truth the film TRUE STORIES is more a David Byrne project than a Talking Heads project--but regardless of who-what-where-when it is a quietly bizarre satire of all things Texas, as any one who has spent time in a small Texas town can attest.
The town in question is Virgil, a community experiencing growing pains due to the advent of the computer industry and a new mall that is drawing folks away from the downtown area. The Texas Sesquicentennial provides a loose theme: promoted as a "Celebration Of Specialness," events include a fashion show, a parade, and most importantly a talent show. Along the way Byrne, acting as a sort of niave visitor-interviewer-narrator, more or less introduces us to the more eccentric locals: the love-lorn Louis (John Goodman); the Civic Leader (Spalding Gray) and his wife (Annie McEnroe), happily married although they have not spoken in years; Miss Rollings (Swoozie Kurtz), so rich she can't even be bothered to leave her bed.
The main thrust of the film follows Louis' efforts to find a wife. So desperate that he advertises on television, Louis draws everything from new-age-yoga practictioners to a woman with a dozen children. Most particularly he encounters The Lying Woman (Jo Harvey Allen) and The Cute Woman (Alix Elias), both of whom are running characters throughout the film. There is also The Computer Guy (Matthew Posey), who is sending signals straight up in the hopes of contacting space aliens; The Preacher (John Ingle), who is convinced that an unspecified conspiracy is taking over the world; Ramon (Tito Larriva), who thinks he can read your mind through your nose; and a Voodoo priest (Pop Staples), who claims to be able bless you with love and wealth.
This being, in theory at least, a Talking Heads film, music pops up from time to time. The score for TRUE STORIES is very underrated by most fans of the band, who complain "it isn't Talking Heads, it's David Byrne!" Well, if it isn't Talking Heads its a very good imitation of it; the real annoyance seems to be that the music serves the nature of the film: deeply ironic and tinged with a Texan plantiveness. Pieces such as "Love For Sale," "Radio Head," "Dream Operator," "City of Dreams," and "Wild Wild Life" (which was a top forty hit) are memorably ironic, witty, and strange in the best traditions of the band.
Now, TRUE STORIES is indeed a cult film in the classic sense: a movie that provokes an extremely positive response in a minority of viewers. The key word is "minority." Most people aren't going to like the film. It's glitchy. It's odd. It's moody. It has a certain sadness. But for those who have an eye for it, TRUE STORIES is charming, witty, clever. The DVD is tiresome--the transfer and sound are merely okay and it is "formatted to fit your screen"--but even so, strongly recommended.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
People Like Us.. ..Really enjoyed this film.
(May contain spoilers.)
This film is not a Talking Heads film. It is a movie about a bunch of people in the fictional town of Virgil, Texas. One of the main things that makes this film really enjoyable is the brilliantly casted assemble of characters. Among the movie's talented cast is "Rosanne" star John Goodman. in one of his earlier roles. Among the cast of quirky characters are the Culvers, a happily married couple who haven't spoken directly to each other in years, a woman who is in love with love, a woman who is so rich she doesn't have to get out of bed and a Latino who can see the future. But the real highlights of this movie are John Goodman's portrayal of a country music loving single man who just wants someone to love. Jo Harvey Allen plays "The Lying Woman" who gets through life telling outrageous lies. Last but not least, David Byrne's unnamed narrator character.
Scenes that make this movie fantastic are the wild fashion show, the narrator's dinner with the Culver's and John Goodman's character's performance of the Talking Heads track "People Like Us". This movie was not a box office hit perhaps it was because of the misconception that this film was ver much like the Talking Heads' 1984 concert film, "Stop Making Sense". But the film became very popular with the great souls that bothered to see it.
Like many others, I believe that this film was cheated of a proper DVD release. This DVD has no special features and barely contains a main menu. I would suggest getting the VHS. I think the picture is sharper and the sound is clearer. Hopefully, the movie will get better DVD treatment. Overall, this film is highly recommended for Talking Heads fans and for fans of very funny 80's films.
Film: A+
Music: A+
DVD: C-
Taylor Hodgkins 6/12/2008
Idiosyncratic wonder While I will admit there are better-made films out there, True Stories remains my favorite movie of all time. I like it because, much like its themes and characters (and life itself), it is imperfect. But its imperfection becomes part of its genius, especially on repeated viewings. It's not really a movie with a plot, except maybe Louis' search for love. It illustrates ideas, themes and moods through a series of arresting images, narration, dialogue, humor and music. The film looks at its subjects with Byrne's mixture of bemusement and satire, both handled with the sort of wide-eyed innocence of an alien visiting Earth from another galaxy. As a result, we see this town and its people through the eyes of Byrne, and therefore start to look at the familiar and mundane in new ways. I will not bother to spend a lot of the time others have spent talking about the plot or what makes this film great--just buy it. It's only 10 bucks. Some favorite quotes (spaces inserted correspond to pauses between phrases):
"Freeways are the cathedrals of our time, someone said. Not me."
"I have something to say about the difference between American cities and European cities but I forgot what it is. I have it written down at home somewhere."
"You like music? I know. Everyone says they do."
"Yep. It's fancy drivin' all right."
"You know, things that never had names before are now easily described. Makes conversation easy."
"They're calling it a celebration of specialness. But this place is completely normal."
"I'm really getting used to these outfits. They sell a lot of 'em, but I don't see anyone else wearing them."
"Most people around here have eaten dinner already. Don't want to be late. Know What I mean? Or do you?"
"I personally believe I can see Fort Worth from here."
"You gotta see this. This might be part of Virgil's Specialness. Or it might not be. You might have seen it on television. Or maybe you missed it. Hope you like "LOUD" music."
"You know the astronauts didn't read poetry. But that's changing."
"Computers are as much a means of expression as language."
"These people have too much metal on them. They are reflecting kind of people."
"I tried a computer dating service once--wound up with a midget. I mean, I'm not a fussy man, but..."
"Marriage is a natural thing, and I am a natural man."
"This is the Vericorp building just outside Virgil. It's cool. It's an all purpose shape--a box."
"Shopping is a Feeling"
"What time is it? No time to look back."
"If I ever went downstairs I might be surprised, huh? It's clean down there, right, Roberto?
"People here are inventing their own system of beliefs. They're creating it, doing it, selling it--making it up as they go along. Driving---not only driving, but parking."
"Hi, twin."
"Um, did you just fart?"
"Linda! Larry! There's no concept of weekends anymore."
"Of course nowadays not eveone's having kids--what with the end of the world coming up and all."
"Metal buildings are the dream that modern architects had at the beginning of this century finally come true, but they themselves don't realize it. That's because it doesn't take an architect to build a metal building."
"This is not a rental car. This is privately owned."
FUNTASTIC FILM I've just read that, though this version is 1.33:1 full-screen, it is not Pan-N-Scan. It is actually an "open matte", meaning this is the ratio of the camera negative, and that any widescreen version version would be cropped from this image. I was also bemoaning the lack of a widescreen edition, but if this is really open matte, then we have here more visual information than a 16:9 ratio would have.
However, I got this from a poster on the IMDb messageboard for the film, and he did not provide proof. I'm still searching for documentation, but to no avail.
just ordered it,hope it's good I saw this movie in the theater when it first came out. I must admit that I didn't get it at first. I quess I didn't know what to expect. But I rented the movie and I was hooked. Watched it over and over. I have recently been listening to the CD, I love the music, and I have been recalling the scenes in the movie. That made me realize that I had to add this movie to my collection. David Byrne was truly inspired when he created this great mix of music and movie story. It's no wonder that he was on the cover of Time Magazine that year as a true renaissance man. I am looking forward to recieving my copy and watching it over and over again.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
