True Stories Review

True stories is a 1986 American musical satirical comedy film directed by David Byrne and written by David Byrne, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Beth Henley. The film stars David Byrne, John Goodman, Swoosie Kurtz, Jo Harvey Allen, Tito Larriva, and Spalding Gray. The film lacks a cohesive narrative but instead is composed of vignettes surrounding various eccentric characters in the small town of Virgil, Texas as they prepare for their “Celebration of Specialness” on the states sesquicentennial anniversary.

This is going to be a difficult review to structure, as the film itself lacks a formal structure of storytelling, so I guess I’ll try my best to say what I mean in as smooth a fashion as possible. I would like to begin by saying that the film is far from flawless, but it is so endearing and funny and unique that I fell in love with it over and over again throughout its runtime. Its witty, charming and devilishly unique, classic and yet contemporary, a perfect blend of the starkness of British comedy with the relaxed nature of American comedies. The film is as much fun to watch as it is to think about, as this film will play on a loop in your mind after watching it, and through its impressively intelligent script, you will find yourself quoting it and remembering it constantly throughout the day.

I’ll begin this review by discussing the writer, director, and arguably the main character, David Byrne. In case you don’t know, David Byrne is mostly known for being the lead singer and guitarist and singer of the American rock band Talking Heads. The first disclaimer to this film comes with the reminder that this movie is the brainchild of the lead singer of a band which comprises the entirety of the soundtrack. There are many aspects of this film that can be seen as self-indulgent, narcissistic, or otherwise presented as a vanity project, but I think that is the case if seen at the most surface level of understanding, as in someone would see “soundtrack by Talking Heads” and “directed by David Byrne” and immediately connect nonexistent dots to create a fantasy of this somehow being an ego project. Firstly, I would say there is only one scene that made me suspect some egomaniacal intentions behind the film, but upon further analysis its clear the scene isn’t meant to increase the ego of any said character. Byrne’s character isn’t portrayed as all knowing, or even as any much better than the people he interacts with. His role in the film is that of an observer, which leads into my next topic, the films tone.

It is very clear that this movie is a satire, playing on many ideas of small-town life, the idiosyncratic identities they adopt, and the role corporations play into their lives. It’s a very tongue in cheek film, with the narrator himself seeming just as strange as the towns people but in a slightly different way, as though he were from a small town a few dozen miles away. The films perspective on its characters never seems like its bullying or making fun of their eccentricities and oddities, while not necessarily praising them either, simply demonstrating who they are from a distance, with a sense of good nature and empathy, despite never proclaiming their oddities as the correct or incorrect way to go about one’s life, simply that it is a manner. The film portrays its characters with an amount of discipline that I didn’t expect, as even though they are very specific to their person, they aren’t as plain as they appear, especially in a film like this that lacks a lot of structure, the fact that even a single character, specifically Louis Fyne (Goodman), has any kind of conclusion to their plot is as unpredictable as it is effective. Much of their stories read like a Wes Anderson imitation, with lines that are delivered without a shred of laughter or even a smile, and the dryness of the comedy elevates the story in every possible way.

The comedy in this film, as I mentioned is very stark, but has a very unique personality to it. I believe if you look at the united states and see where certain comedies are made, one can analyze what type of comedy they will get from each region. West coast comedies, like The Player or L.A. Story have a postmodern ironic sense of humor that comes with a sense of elitism that has infamously plagued residents of southern California for decades. If you head across the country to the west coast, we see the New York comedy, which is a much drearier, more Billy Wilder-esque approach to comedy, where the nihilism in everyday existence is the joke. This can be seen in After Hours or Frances Ha. If you meet right in the middle, the Midwest has its own sense of humor, which can be boiled down to “anything that gets people laughing”. It can be as silly and nonsensical as possible as long as people laugh, and this is evident in films like Airplane, Top Secret, or Spaceballs. While Texan humor is usually reliant on western American stereotypes and tropes, the humor of True Stories feels plucked right out of the characters in Virgil, Texas. It feels like listening to jokes told by an alien that looks human, but you can tell is a little off. Even something as simple as Byrne’s steering wheel going nuts while on the road and he just says “its fancy drivin all right” is a perfect summation of stark dry humor that feels so niche to one town that it works, a wildly original sense of humor for a wildly original film.

Speaking of the originality of the film, this is a good time to mention the satirical element of the movie. There are many ways it can be interpreted, but I see the satire tied to one thing only, which is the institutionalization of Varicorp in the small town and the man who brought it in, Earl Culver, played by Spalding Gray. In the movie, a new tech conglomerate provided hundreds of new jobs for the people of Virgil, and in the Celebration of Specialness, the folks in Virgil thank the man who brought it in, who is Earl Culver, the man who famously doesn’t talk to his wife directly, but only through his kids. Again, this isn’t played to mock him, but instead is rather sweet. Nothing they say is malicious in nature, its simply that they don’t speak directly and that’s how it is. I think Varicorp satirizes the conglomerate attempts to “tame” a small town into working for them and how their eccentricities simply fall incongruous to the modernized world. This climaxes in one of the best scenes, where Earl talks about the factories impact on people’s lives over dinner, mentioning how people invent because they like it as he holds a bundle of asparagus up to the sky as if to bless it. the entire scene is so clever and works brilliantly thanks to Spalding Gray’s range as an actor and storyteller. The way he describes people and the world is so insightful and unique, listening to him speak is a delight no matter the topic. Later in the film, at the talent show that is a part of the celebration of specialness, Culver tells a joke about how god made Texas dry and flat by accident, and instead of starting over, he just made people that liked it that way, which again could be interpreted as a jab at the townspeople, because they find the joke funny, but its delivered with such sincerity I don’t believe the film is at any point mocking or looking down on its characters.

Now, onto the wonderful characters of Virgil, Texas. We already talked about the Culvers, and the only other main characters really are Louis Fyne (Goodman), The Lying Woman (Jo Harvey Allen), and the Lazy Woman (Swoosie Kurtz). I have to make a preface to this section. In the past, I have complained about films not giving their side character enough character to make them interesting, and while that criticism could be turned on True Stories, I argue that despite their lack of character in the storytelling sense, they have so much personality expressed in their brief time on screen that they’re still entertaining to watch, and therefore I excuse their lack of proper character, as in a film like this, there’s not much place for “proper characters”. The Lying Woman is probably the weirdest character of the main three, as she is the only one who doesn’t get a conclusion of any kind. In short, she tells absurd lies all the time, at inconvenient and embarrassing venues like church and dates, and often loses people around her for it. her lies are absolutely absurd, ranging from her having a tail at birth to writing half the songs for The Beatles. She goes on a date with Louis and looks at him lovingly during the Celebration of Specialness, but nothing much comes of it. The closest we have to a protagonist and a character arc is Louis, who is a lonely man desperately looking for a wife. The extents he goes to for a wife, while comedic and bizarre, never cross the unspoken line of absurdity. Goodman’s performance of Louis is wonderful, as he gives a surprising amount of vulnerability to the character, showing his range of emotions while on dates with various characters throughout the film. There is no character that is by any means a lynchpin holding the film together like a house of cards, but instead gives the film the expression of being simple despite its interesting observations on everyday life. Louis’ basic story is that he wrote a song for the talent show at the Celebration of Specialness that he believes will get him a wife, but to be sure he goes to a shrink or matchmaker and has him bless his performance. At the talent show, The Lazy Woman sees him on TV, falls for him, and they get married. The lazy Woman is an interesting specimen, as her whole approach to life is that she’s so rich that she doesn’t need to get out of bed if she doesn’t want to, so she spends her days in bed watching TV. She watches various thing, like fake commercials, soap operas, an advertisement made by Louis where he is basically offering himself as a husband (an ad which she mocks), and a Talking Heads music video.

The inclusion of the Talking Heads video is something I already mentioned as a possible sign of vanity, but clearly in the context of the scene, it’s played for humor. This leads well into the music of the film. I was not aware upon first watching that the film is a musical, and I generally don’t like musicals, as the singing scenes are usually the ones where my eyes wander and my head detaches from the film, not from despise of any kind, but usually just because I find the scenes in which the singing is happening quite boring. The only scene I can say is actually boring in this film is the church scene. There are parts of it that are entertaining, like how The Lying Woman yells about her affair with JFK, but ultimately, I find that scene very tedious. Otherwise, almost all of the music in this film fits tonally and is surprisingly not boring. In fact, my second favorite scene is in fact a musical scene (my favorite scene is the dinner in which Spalding gray describes the effects of Varicorp). It is a scene in a lip-syncing bar where Wild Wild Life is playing and various characters come up and sing along. the scene has a sense of stationary happiness, like the bar is detached from the earth and exists in a place with no pain, and it’s a wonderful feeling to have momentarily. In fact, the entire film is like that, with various singing parts feeling that same way, such as the talent show and the actual ending talent show. I was surprised by the diversity in the music considering most if by Talking Heads. Of course, the band stays the same but in particular the ending scene and the fashion show, as they’re slower and more melodic than I would’ve expected but fit their respective scenes well. The brilliant thing about this movie is the little details, like the inclusion of over 50 sets of twins in the film, the details in the living areas, and all of it comes from such a sincere place of passion and honestly, it could all be read as a ballad for small town America and I love it for that, and the music of the film ties into that sense of admiration for small town folk with the grace of a ballerina.

The script of this film, while unique and inspired, has one glaring flaw for me that kept it from being perfect, which is that it takes way too long to really get going for me. the first half hour of the film are excruciatingly slow, and you can feel every minute tick by. This isn’t entirely bad, as I enjoy the scenes of Byrne just driving around philosophizing about the town, but a good comparison would be the first few scenes of him driving, where he barely speaks, besides a few quips here and there like “the receptions great out here” and such, and if one were to a driving scene about an hour into the film, a gorgeous little montage of Byrne driving by these little house and talking about who he believes lives there. there is a delicate bell tune playing, and as Byrne drives by a set of cute little houses, he says “look at this. Who can say it isn’t beautiful?” That quiet shot of Byrne driving after making us think about “is this beautiful or not?” is so rich and powerful and honestly, proves to us how beautiful it is, and there isn’t that much to chew on in the first half hour of the film. The first minutes of this movie are the equivalent of holding a bone over a dogs head, as I want nothing more than to indulge in every bit of satire and provocation this film has to offer, but it’s not ready to give it to me, so I’m left waiting, wondering what is to come.

This film on a visual level is delightful. It is one of the most artful films I’ve see come out of the late 80’s and its done so in a way that isn’t flashy or artsy. Every shot is rich in color and scale, making homes appear like dollhouses and people appear like trinkets in windows of a toy store. Everything feels contained in the palm of your hand like a firefly, and it gives the film a sense of home that most films truly can’t offer. There is of course the shot of the houses going by during the “look at this” scene which I discussed, there’s the various shots at the lip sync bar, but I find the most balanced and intricate shots to appear during segments of the film where the song “City of Dreams” is playing, which occurs several times, most of them being quiet and instrumental, but barely audible, but there is a shot of three men standing near a gas pump and its angled in a way that looks like their heads are going up to space, and it’s so calm and peaceful, it gives the same feeling of seeing the beautiful prairie or the joy on the faces of everyone in Virgil during the talent show. It truly does feel like stepping into your own living room and relaxing into an old leather comforter you’ve known for years. The film is as delicate as it is proud of its identity, and its shown in every aspect, from its hilarious acting, brilliant script, compassionate direction, and wonderfully warm tone. If you like Talking Heads, watch this movie, and if you don’t, give “Dream Operator” a listen and if that cant change your mind then nothing will.

True Stories gets an 8/10