TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

peterpants66 True Stories is a movie about fictitious Texas town "Virgil" and their celebration of specialness. It's the towns Sesquicentennial and writer/director/star David Byrne takes us on a ride through Virgil outlining all the colorful people that live there, their talents and ultimately what they want from life. John Goodman plays "Lewis Fyne" who posts a commercial accompanied by phone number in search of a bride. This movie is laced with Talking Heads music, and in a way it's kind of a musical. But not one of those "Nutcracker" types, this is a musical that the FREAKS can get behind. The movie takes a nod from the beat poets, it Explodes into song from time to time and examines complexities through a kaleidoscope instead of a microscope. The film has got truth, lies, and one hell of a talent show at the end. Radiohead gets their name from this movie, which explains much. Although the town of Virgil is fictional, everything is shot in Texas, so there's plenty of of long green landscapes and prefabricated building's. The film explores a variety of topics, the intro is amazing, Puzzlin evidence is awesome, the cute lady, the liar. I personally don't know many people who have seen this either, and it's got a lot less reviews then you'd imagine for a movie of such abundance. It flows like a river and crashes like lightning, it's both intriguing and hysterical, "astronauts didn't use to read poetry, that's changing now". I love the dinner scene with the overhead shot of all the food lighting up, "Linda, Larry, there's no such thing as weekends anymore!". How about Indian wars, computer technology, the Trilateral commission, name one other movie that covers so much ground. It's both scary and beautiful, like being eaten by a shark while dispersing fliers to an upcoming wrestling match, or being beaten to death by clowns while reciting the pledge of allegiance.

lgarrick-1 I liked this movie so much I bought the screen play. It is funny, hip and a great commentary on American culture - a little dated now, it's still worth watching.David Byrne wrote this screen played inspired by small town papers in little West Texas towns. It tracks the lives of colorful characters over a week or so in a small w. Texas town celebrating it's 200th anniversary. Stars a bunch of wonderful actors before they were famous including John Goodman, Spalding Gray and Swoozy Kurtz, all played to a sound track of the best of Talking Heads music from the 80s.Especially fun is the voo-doo love doctor that helps John Gooman's character find true love.A good evening of fun!

His_Dudeness74 When rock's 'renaissance man' (as he was once heralded by Time magazine ..) David Byrne got the go-ahead to direct and co-write his debut feature film, fans of the quirky Talking Heads front man were naturally curious as to what oddness Mr. Byrne would produce ... With True Stories, Byrne delivered the kind of ambiguous messages and intellectual stimulate fans had come to associate from his musical offerings - a simple enough tale, centering on fictional Texan town Virgil's quirky inhabitants and their preparations for it's 'Sesquecentenial celebration of special-ness' ... a nice backdrop for some kooky comedy, but is Byrne laughing with, or at Virgil's southern population - is he poking gentle fun at the new-age frontiersmen that constitute the towns occupants, or mercilessly taking the p*ss out of the Virgilians and their barren, pre-fab factory dotted landscape ? Some of the characters on display are fools, yet harmless-enough; 'the Lying Woman' with her outrageously tall tales, 'the Cute Woman' with her love of all things pink, 'the Lazy Woman', so rich that she never *needs* to leave her bed (Byrne : 'Well, wouldn't you ?") and fashion-concussed 'Dancing Fool' Louis Fine, who serves as the movie's main character (sympathetically handled by an amiable John Goodman ). Other characters are slightly edgier, conspiracy theorist/Preacher character, Pops Staples mystical love doctor, and the late Spalding Gray's wonderful town patriach ... Overall the films light feel leads one to believe Byrne's intentions were harmless enough - in fact his character in the film, an out-of-towner narrator dressed in ill-judged cowboy suits, is a nice metaphor for Byrne himself; an odd outsider (Byrne was a Scottish immigrant to the USA as a child) observing an even odder, new environment - the narration itself is often amusing but less often illuminating as to the Byrne's own opinions on what he sees...Great set-pieces like the ghastly Mall fashion show, Byrne's rather surreal dinner appointment at businessman Mr. Culver's family home, a wonderful detour to a gospel church and the assorted whacky acts performed by Virgil's finest during the parade and evening performance make the film easy to watch, as does the cinematography that successfully captures the vast isolated state of Texas and it's people's often kitsch attempts to tame it. Byrne and his band Talking Heads successfully weave musical numbers throughout the film naturally, without contrivance - the actors sing most of the tunes, Byrne only saves the last number, over the closing credits, for himself... Strangely David Byrne has never directed another film. I believe that if this film had been made 10 years after its initial release, it and Byrne would have been swept up in Indie movie fever; True Stories was a slightly odd film when it first screened, and it's ambiguity puzzled some. A bit like David Byrne himself ... Well worth re-visiting if you've seen it before too ...

rosebud-karlstad This movie made me a different person, to watch David Byrne was a heartwarming experience. Sometimes it's a slow moving picture but it picks up the pace in just the right time to make you feel involved in the characters. To put it frank - this was a mind blowing experience. Some people may come to the conclusion that this is just a simple movie about simple people - and these people are right. But my dear friends, ask yourselves; how often do you see that - once in a lifetime! The reason that I haven't said anything concrete about the movie is that it's a picture in the same class as Lost Highway, try to say something about that movie, it's not easy, see it and become a better human being.