True Stories (1986)
June 12, 2022 4:30 PM - Subscribe
Talking Heads singer David Byrne plays host to this bizarre patchwork of tabloid-inspired tales, set in the fictional town of Virgil, Texas. Cruising the streets in his cherry-red drop-top, Byrne introduces viewers to the local eccentrics gearing up for the town's 150th anniversary. They include a community leader (Spalding Gray) with a thing for veggies, a woman (Swoosie Kurtz) so lazy she won't leave her bed, a lovelorn country singer (John Goodman) and more. Byrne co-wrote, composed the music, and directed.
Currently available for digital rental in the US on various outlets.
Currently available for digital rental in the US on various outlets.
Cruising the streets in his cherry-red drop-top
By the way...this isn't a rental car. No, this is privately owned!
posted by Ipsifendus at 5:57 AM on June 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
By the way...this isn't a rental car. No, this is privately owned!
posted by Ipsifendus at 5:57 AM on June 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
He found himself behind the wheel of a large automobile.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:39 AM on June 13, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:39 AM on June 13, 2022 [9 favorites]
This was a watershed movie for me in the early nineties. My step-father made us all sit down to watch the rented VHS and I couldn't understand it - after years of Roseanne I knew that John Goodman was an actor, and yet here he was purporting to be someone else, in a movie called True Stories... could it be that they weren't true stories? Yet it had all the hallmarks of a talking heads documentary... and that guy, I recognise him from MTV, he's the singer in Talking Heads. Is that why they're called Talking Heads?! Is this like MTV's The Real World but with actors?
I think my stepdad spent longer than the runtime explaining to me what had been going on.
posted by Molesome at 8:05 AM on June 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
I think my stepdad spent longer than the runtime explaining to me what had been going on.
posted by Molesome at 8:05 AM on June 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
My first CD!
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 4:10 PM on June 13, 2022
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 4:10 PM on June 13, 2022
I saw this when it came out and watched it again a couple of months ago and was very happy that it held up so well.
posted by acrasis at 4:11 PM on June 13, 2022
posted by acrasis at 4:11 PM on June 13, 2022
It was only released to one theater in Houston. Absolutely criminal.
posted by Beholder at 7:13 PM on June 13, 2022
posted by Beholder at 7:13 PM on June 13, 2022
I love this film. This is one of the movies I watch when I'm feeling anxious and terrible and need something calming and relatively conflict-free (the other one is The Muppet Movie). I've had to buy several copies, because I keep giving copies of this movie away to other people. A true celebration of specialNESS.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 12:49 PM on June 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 12:49 PM on June 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
was very happy that it held up so well
It really does hold up. I think it may actually play better now than it did upon release. Byrne's perspective may seem less skewed that it used too, in a more media-saturated era.
posted by Ipsifendus at 2:35 PM on June 14, 2022
It really does hold up. I think it may actually play better now than it did upon release. Byrne's perspective may seem less skewed that it used too, in a more media-saturated era.
posted by Ipsifendus at 2:35 PM on June 14, 2022
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posted by chrisulonic at 6:44 PM on June 12, 2022 [3 favorites]