Essential Cinema: True Stories
By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 9, 2009 5:20PM
I'm stepping away from the Chicagoist "we" for a moment, because there's no way I can possibly be objective about True Stories. It's my favorite movie.
When I was about 13 we used to rent movies from King Soopers, the local supermarket. Jammed between the greeting cards and the candy aisle were two red metal shelves which held empty VHS cover boxes. While Mom did the shopping I would browse the tiny selection of cinematic offerings. One day I picked out a box that had a sharp-looking man in a tailored cowboy suit and sunglasses on the cover, reading an oversized tabloid. The back cover promised a joyous musical romp in the vein of Help! (which I loved) but set in Texas and featuring such characters as the Laziest Woman in the World and a voodoo shaman, struttin' his stuff while casting a love spell.
We got home and I popped it into the VCR. And it changed my life forever. It was the first time I realized that a movie could do more than just tell a story. Co-writer/director/narrator David Byrne does present a "plot" of sorts, centering around the small town of Virgil and its Celebration of Specialness honoring Texas' sesquicentennial. But as Byrne later wrote, "The story is just a trick to hold your attention. It opens the door and lets the real movie in."
The real movie is a bunch of vignettes, weird ideas, musical numbers, and observations about Reagan-era America inspired by Weekly World News articles. It's about shopping malls, highways, technology, conspiracy theories, religion, and even love. In other words, it captures 1986 like no other movie. The soundtrack includes songs performed both by Talking Heads and various actors in the film (the track "Radio Head" inspired a certain well-known band.) John Goodman even croons a country tune. In the wide open spaces of True Stories' Texas there's room for an avant-garde fashion show, a discussion of urban sprawl, a parade featuring 50 sets of identical twins, and a music video incorporating actual TV commercials.
The movie is beautifully photographed by Ed Lachman, who has worked with everyone from Werner Herzog to Todd Haynes and Steven Soderbergh. The only DVD available is an execrable pan & scan version that makes tomorrow night's screening that much more unmissable. If you're a fan of Slacker, Raising Arizona, Zizek!, or early Tim Burton, you should definitely check it out. As the poster's tagline says, it's a completely cool, multi-purpose movie.
True Stories screens Tuesday night, 7pm at Doc Films, The University of Chicago, 1212 E. 59th St.