The Great Musical Thrill Ride - Stop Making Sense Remaster - Review

5/5

After much restless anticipation, I finally had the opportunity (and time) to see the 4K remaster of Stop Making Sense in IMAX. I only discovered this film and the Talking Heads over six months ago, but ever since that fateful day, it and the band have taken up permanent residence in the depths of my mind. Before the remaster was even announced in March, I had watched this film twice on Roku and YouTube. Now, yes, it is a concert film. I am sure many will question how exactly a concert film can stand up against cinema's greatest narrative works of the 80s like Do the Right Thing or Blue Velvet. Well, to those of you with these questions, there is one simple answer, you obviously have not seen the film.

Stop Making Sense is a non-stop thrill ride of fantastic music and brilliant production design. The show itself reminds me a lot of a ride at Disney World in its structure. Let me explain. The show begins with a solitary David Byrne (Lead vocalist and guitarist for the band) center stage. He plays a stripped-down version of one of the band's hits, "Psycho Killer" with just a guitar and a boombox. For each subsequent song, Byrne is joined by a new member of the band: Tina Weymouth (Bass), Chris Frantz (Drums), Jerry Harrison (Guitar and Keyboard), and so on. This is a fun gimmick, but by the seventh song in the set, "Burning Down the House," the stage is filled with the entire ensemble. Yet, just when you think you have reached the peak of the show's brilliance, you realize that the ride hasn't even started yet. Yeah, all that came before was merely the prologue or the stunning and immersive ride queue (so to speak). Now, the actual ride begins. From this moment on, every artistic choice, song, and arrangement is thrilling, ingenious, and fiercely entertaining. Body parts, lamps, infamous fat suits, and band takeovers are just some of what Byrne and co. have to offer, and we, the audience, have the ultimate VIP ticket to experience it all thanks to Jonathan Demme.

Jonathan Demme is best known for his award-winning films in the early 90s, Silence of the Lambs and Philidelphia, but at the time of Stop Making Sense, Demme was just a simple career director. He had a few minor credits to his name and had not yet directed any prominent features. Despite all that, Stop Making Sense is a brilliant showcase of the talent this young director had in store for all of us. Demme and his crew were able to put you on stage with the band to experience the entire experience up close and personal. Every gyration, stolen glance, and passionate expression is captured in beautiful technicolor. The visuals are stunning and, other than the rare take that is obviously from a separate point in time (which I only caught on this viewing), are almost flawless.

The stunning visuals and incredible stagecraft would, of course, be moot if the sound mix was anything less than stellar. Luckily for us, this remaster has a mix that is not only as good as the original but ten times better. The remaster makes full use of IMAX's extra channels, using 11 of them to create an immersive aural experience (Source). The music, enhanced by the pristine quality, is as earth-shattering and revolutionary as it ever was, even decades later.

I may be an extremely new Talking Heads fan, but I feel so lucky to have discovered this revolutionary group and their groundbreaking foyer into film just in time to have this fantastic theatrical experience with similarly passionate fans of fantastic music and cinema. Whether you have never heard of this group or are a long-time Head-Head yourself, you deserve to see this remaster on the big screen before it is too late. It was a real treat...I just wish my screening had more dancing!

P.S. This is My TS: The Eras Tour