South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Spike Lee, David Byrne take us on a hypnotic journey No MPAA rating
Spike Lee’s mesmerizing film version ofDavid Byrne’s terrific Broadway concert “AmericanUtopia” feels so thrillingly alive, youmay actually forget you’re not in a theater. Or perhaps you’ll feel like the stage has somehowbeen lifted from its moorings and delivered straight to your living room— or, as Byrne might prefer, right into your brain. In any case, this hypnotic film experience is a badly needed shot in the arm for all of us— music lovers, theater lovers, dance lovers, culture lovers, life lovers. It’s also one of the best concert films in recent memory.
Of course, “David Byrne’s AmericanUtopia,” a major Broadway happening thatwas due to return to theHudson Theatre this fall, feels like far more than a concert. It’s based on Byrne’s music, yes, from his 2018 album of the same name but also other solo work and some iconic TalkingHeads tracks. But that’s just the launching point.
The show, which one could broadly describe as a reflection on community and connectedness, is filled with pungent Byrne-ian commentary, on everything from brain function toDadaism to climate change. “Meeting people is hard,” he muses at one point. But he can also get more political, as when he chides Americans for low voter turnout, especially in local elections.
A crucial element of the show’s success is its enormously talented multicultural supporting cast of 11 musicians and dancers, who hail fromBrooklyn to Brazil. Dressed just like Byrne in silver-gray suits and bare feet, they play
Running time:
On HBO and HBO Max on Oct. 17
fascinating percussion instruments, and also sing and dance; everyone here does double or triple duty. Standouts include the exuberant BobbyWooten III on bass and the elegant Angie Swan on guitar.
Then there’s the endlessly inventive choreography by Annie-B Parson, not so much dancing as a holistic system ofmovement performed joyfully by lead dancers Chris Giarmo and TendayiKuumba. “I dance like this because it feels so damn good,” goes the Byrne song “IDance Like This,” and yes, it does feel damn good, both towatch and to emulate. By theway, go ahead and try to get through this film without dancing yourself.
Lee’s cameras constantly find new and exciting angles on the action (the cinematography is by EllenKuras)— overhead, underneath, behind the performers or half an inch from their faces. And yet we never glimpse a camera, even though 11 operatorswere involved.
Lee has made a few additions to the Broadway
show. For example, when Byrne and the cast sing JanelleMonae’s stirring protest song “Hell You Talmbout,” chanting names of Black men and women who died in racial violence or at the hands of police, Lee provides powerful visuals and adds more recent names such as Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
As for Byrne, at 68 a remarkable font of quirky energy, he shifts seamlessly from somber moments like this to ebullient renditions of TalkingHeads classics such as “I Zimbra,” “Once in a Lifetime,” and “Road toNowhere.” But nothing gets the audience out of their seats like the rollicking version of “Burning Down theHouse.” Chances are youwon’t stay in yours.
On the show’s closing day in February— I happened to be there withmy sister and cousin— we were given happy news. Byrne announced to cheers that the show would return in September.
Then the pandemic happened, and who knows when “AmericanUtopia” will be back. Until that one fine day, let’s thank Lee and Byrne for giving us something a little better— no, a lot better— than merely the next best thing.