Not only is the film punctuated with Byrne's musings on the joyful agony of what it means to be a person, but also what it means to be a community, reflected in the way he incorporates his band into the experience. That sense of a fourth wall being shattered is completely purposeful, as American Utopia is ultimately about collective togetherness. Instead of presenting us with the spectacle, Lee and Byrne invite us into it simply watching American Utopia feels movingly participatory. Lee ircumvents this by making the film immersive, placing us onstage and in the audience, giving us views that physically couldn't have been experienced in person. There's something about even the best filmed theatre that struggles to capture the live excitement of the moment, how it feels to be in that audience. It's the way that Lee captures the evening that reminds us what it's like to experience concerts in the flesh, even from the trapped comfort of our sofas (though good luck sitting still while such bangers as "Burning Down the House" and "Once in a Lifetime" are given fresh treatment). In many respects, this film is a worthy companion to that pinnacle of the concert movie genre, but in even more ways, it proves to be its own kind of transformative and ecstatic creature. Demme, future Oscar-winning director of The Silence of the Lambs, lent his distinct style to Stop Making Sense, and similarly, American Utopia is also a creative meeting of the minds between Byrne and Lee's creative points of view. That film's fans will be especially happy, given the amount of ebullient visuals and Byrne-ian oddball choreography on display in American Utopia, all emanating from Byrne's unpredictable ingenuity that's always one step ahead of our mere mortal brains. It's more of a hybrid of concert, abstract theatre, and unbridled cinema - the kind we haven't seen since… well, since the Talking Heads' definitive 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, made with director Jonathan Demme. More than a concert, it's a statement on the human experience, a jam-session assemblage of loosely tied ideas about the big and small anxieties of living in the here and now.Īs much as Byrne's not-easily-described piece was more than a night at the theatre, Lee's film also defies simple categorization. Filled with songs from Byrne's solo catalog as well as his beloved band the Talking Heads, Byrne is backed onstage by an awe-inspiring collection of musicians and backup dancers, presenting a one-of-a-kind event filtered through Byrne's famously eccentric perspective. Filmed in Januray during the production's limited Broadway run, David Byrne's American Utopia is the latest example of live theatre brought into our homes (after Disney+'s Hamilton and Amazon's What the Constitution Means to Me). Enter Spike Lee and David Byrne's American Utopia on HBO, and thank goodness.Ĭoncert films aren't new of course, but this is a very special one. With live entertainment on pause for the seventh straight month, it's hard to imagine an at-home experience coming close to the feeling of vibing to the live sound of our favorite band. Nothing matches the communal euphoria of going to a concert.
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