Jay D 's Watching’s review published on Letterboxd:
My grandmother really liked Talking Heads--I've always had a soft spot for them, accordingly.
Anyhow, today was a long and somewhat frustrating sort of Sunday, so when I got in tonight, I needed something that was comfort food and I hadn't seen this film in a really long time. So.
Two truths. 1- The Talking Heads had assembled themselves a really tight band--they're at the peak of their powers, to use the cliche here, but it's really powerful and 2- David Byrne is a huge weirdo. It's kind of fascinating to contrast his hoedown stomping in the oversize suit and red hat to, say, Van Halen, rocking out at the same time. It's nerds as rock gods and it's remarkably joyous (the running on the spot during Life During Wartime, say, or my favorite, the bit where one of the backup singers keeps glancing over at Byrne vibrating when he's taken off the oversize jacket but still has the huge pants on, and you can tell she can't believe what she's seeing) but on top of that, this is a concert film with an arc of all things, starting with a man with a song and guitar--but no comrades or audience---in what looks like an empty basement--and ending, 80 minutes later, with a camera that's trained on the people wielding the cameras, and the audience--the lifecycle of a song, the arc of creation, the creation of the joy that lingers.......everyone was at the concert, even if you were never at the concert. Everyone who was there, still is. Everyone will leave at exactly the same time. And all the songs are my favorite.