![]() There are no big ideas beyond We’re All Connected, and Be Nicer to Each Other, and also, well, Vote. The set list is a career-spanning collection of 20-odd tunes-about half of them Talking Heads classics and deep cuts, because sometimes you gotta reach backward to Move Forward-interspersed with Byrne’s genial observations on the human brain, and the Dada movement, and television (he used to watch a lot), and voting (he wishes more people did). You get just enough of a taste of that euphoria to know how much you’re still missing. ![]() That heartbreaking absence-of virtually all live music and theater, though American Utopia hopes to return to the stage eventually-is part of what makes the movie so sublimely bittersweet. Directed by Spike Lee (!!) and premiering on HBO Saturday night, American Utopia began life as a reliably playful 2018 solo album, then a lengthy national tour, then an initial Broadway run from October 2019 to February 2020, wrapping up just before COVID-19 darkened Broadway across the board. But the dazed, profound whimsy of his voice has always been awfully convincing.Īnother confession: I tend to cry, or at least tear up, at all musical theater, on principle: something about the overwhelming collective euphoric whoosh that somehow only musical theater provides. But yeah, looking at people: That’s the best.” Byrne (still!) doesn’t quite yet sound convinced himself. “Like, say, a bicycle, or a beautiful sunset, or a nice bag of potato chips. “Objectively, I could never figure out why looking at a person should be any more interesting than looking at any other thing,” he tells the audience-the front-row fans themselves usually on their feet, dancing-as the synth-bass line to “This Must be the Place” thrums in the background. It’s a defiantly goofy spectacle that involves Byrne and up to 11 singers and dancers and backing musicians barefoot in matching gray suits, many wielding cartoon marching band percussion instruments, bouncing merrily around a stage usually stripped of all furnishings. But that cheerful struggle for genuine human connection-“I’m just an animal looking for a home and / Share the same space for a minute or two”-is what makes the whole of American Utopia so moving. To hear his still-miffed Talking Heads bandmates tell it, this guy vibes a little better with lamps than with people. Highlights From a Surreal, Remote Toronto International Film Festival
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