Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Stop Making Sense’ on Max, A24’s 40th Anniversary Restoration Of Jonathan Demme’s Landmark Talking Heads Concert Film 

Stop Making Sense, now streaming on Max, captures Talking Heads in concert in 1983 at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles. Directed and co-written by Jonathan Demme, with cinematography from Jordan Cronenweth (Blade Runner, U2: Rattle and Hum), the film finds David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and their accompanists in catchy top form, transmitting a wholly unique form of kinetic energy with every funky bass line and singably huge hook. And also, in Byrne’s case, with his famously huge business suit. With this high-profile, A24-released, 4K-restored edition of Stop Making Sense, we’re declaring this summer as prime time for TikTok dancers and Fortnite flossers to take up the impressive display of dance moves shown off by Byrne throughout.        

STOP MAKING SENSE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

The Gist: Jonathan Demme shot Stop Making Sense over three nights at the Pantages in December 1983, as Talking Heads were on tour, but you wouldn’t know it from how cohesively this concert film holds together. At the time, the Heads were having a lot of chart success with “Burning Down the House,” and their performance of that song mid-set is frenetic, funky, and full-throated. But things start out in boiled-down mode. On a bare stage with no backdrop David Byrne appears, and soon he’s exploring the space, carving out the skeletal guitar line of “Psycho Killer” before seeming to lose control of his limbs. Joined first by bassist Tina Weymouth for “Heaven,” and then guitarist/keyboardist Jerry Harrison and backup vocalists Ednah Holt and Lynn Mabry for “Thank You for Sending Me an Angel” as roadies roll out Chris Frantz’s drum riser, the rhythm station, and the synthesizer platform, you can feel energy in the room rising even as the area of performance is constructed before your very eyes.

As “Found a Job,” “Slippery People,” and the aforementioned “Burning Down the House” fall in, Talking Heads and their collaborators – including keyboardist Bernie Worrell and guitarist Alex Weir – continue to build a groove. They stamp their feet in unison. They show off incredible reserves of stamina while running in place. It’s all very catchy and infectious, even as Byrne’s lyrics and Talking Heads’ knack for off-kilter melodies generate palpable levels of anxiety. This is pop music built from the absurdities of everyday life, layered over an elemental punk spirit and enormous funk grooves. And by the time they get to “Life During Wartime,” with its riffs on living in a technicolor dystopia, everyone on stage is dance-running while Byrne’s stationary wiggle recalls one of those manic inflatable tube men in front of a car dealership.

Drugs, onions, air conditioned; under the bed, videogame, sandwiches, diamonds. As words conjuring the essence of advertisements and creature comforts are projected onstage, the set also transforms into a memory of domesticity for “This Must be the Place (Naive Melody) – David Byrne dances with a living room lamp – blue-tinted gospel fervor for “Take Me to the River,” and the space for a completely different band, as Weymouth and Frantz transform themselves into their Tom Tom Club side project for the perennial playlist banger “Genius of Love.” And when the Stop Making Sense encore hits with “Girlfriend is Better,” it’s time for Byrne to bust out the big suit, a brilliant bit of stagecraft that remains this legendary concert film’s defining image.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? The performance segments of LCD Soundsystem’s 2012 concert film Shut Up and Play the Hits feel a bit indebted to Stop Making Sense. And back in 1986, while riding high on the success of Talking Heads’ concert film, David Byrne was given carte blanche to make basically whatever movie he wanted. The result was the whimsical, trippy True Stories, which stars Byrne, John Goodman, and Swoosie Kurtz, and Spalding Gray. It’s currently available to stream on Prime. 

Performance Worth Watching: Cillian Murphy as David Byrne in a Talking Heads biopic when? From the second he first appears onstage, alone but for an acoustic guitar and boombox prop – “Hi, I got a tape I wanna play” – Byrne is transfixing. He’s a storyteller crossed with a court jester, a shredded and sparking power cable inspiring everyone in the room – even his fellow bandmates and musicians – to grasp at and harness the energy he emits.   

Memorable Dialogue: Not a lot of stage chatter from Byrne or anyone else in Stop Making Sense, though if we’re allowing for communication through the visual medium of dance, then they’re all speaking volumes. The new viral social media challenge should be for groups of people to run in place to a beat with as much vigor as Talking Heads and their supporting players.

Sex and Skin: A matte black finish is applied to the backline instruments, and the musicians on stage are clad largely in monochrome gray, all of which unifies the image we see on film. But the flat color palette also serves to highlight the fantastic amounts of perspiration being generated by everyone up there. They’re sweating to the beat!

Our Take: The songs and performances in Stop Making Sense are driven forward with an impatient, spunky weirdness that would become a unifying factor for New Wave at large, but in this live context proves how in 1983, exactly nobody was doing it quite like Talking Heads. Jonathan Demme keeps the crowd largely out of it – they are there, obviously, right in the front row, and in the room it’s certain they projected their enjoyment toward the stage. But Demme keeps the perspective on the performers, especially in the many moments where they seem to egg each other on. One player hopping around in a herky-jerky motion inspires two more to join in – they even break off into small groups, swept up in the music’s rhythmic pulse or in the moments where the synthesizers and Tina Weymouth’s Moog rig create strange and beautiful squeaks and stabs that lend an otherworldliness to Talking Heads’ funky grooves.

And: the big suit. David Byrne has said the gray XXXXL two-piece business number was inspired by the visual traditions of Japanese classical theater like Noh and Kyōgen, influences that align with Talking Heads’ art rock aesthetic. But once it’s put into action, as the arms and legs billow around Byrne’s dancing body, the suit creates a sense of serendipitous joy. Sure, it’s high-concept. But it’s also just a damn good time. The big suit contains the palpable energy and relentless fun of Stop Making Sense in its multitudes.

Our Call: STREAM IT. As concert film setlists go, Stop Making Sense is all killer, no filler. It’s also looking and sounding better than ever in this exquisite 4K remaster. It’s like a dream walking in broad daylight.   

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.