Lee’s footage takes us right up to the artist, close-ups granting us exclusive access that even paying ticketholders have been denied. It’s a testament to the filmmaker that it feels as if we, too, are being addressed.
“Are we getting stupider and stupider?” he posits, setting the tone with wonderfully dry humour. In fact, as the artist assures his audience, he wants this to be casual and stripped back, hence the lack of any props save for the plastic brain he clutches in the opening track. And yet, the cast are remarkably lithe, their lack of shoes playfully undermining the formal dress code. Byrne, in a characteristic clean-cut grey suit and shirt, is joined by 11 band members in the same attire, a dozen concrete-coloured clones. The performance itself sits somewhere between a gig and a musical: it’s got the intimacy of the former and the sleek cohesive choreography the latter. This concert film, a live recording of Byrne’s hit Broadway show, is meticulously composed for all eyes and ears. Whether you’re a devoted fan of Talking Heads who cried into your pillow for a decade after they disbanded in the early 90s, or you haven’t heard of their former frontman David Byrne – let alone his latest solo album American Utopia – the singer-songwriter’s joyous cinematic collaboration with the legendary Spike Lee may well entice you to delve into his discography.
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