True Stories (1986) (Criterion Collection)

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David Byrne’s exuberant musical road trip through Texas, in a Blu-ray edition featuring the complete soundtrack on CD. Music icon David Byrne was inspired by tabloid headlines to make this sole foray into feature film directing, an ode to the extraordinariness of ordinary American life and a distillation of what was in his own idiosyncratic mind. Byrne plays a visitor to Virgil, Texas, who introduces us to the citizens of the town during preparations for its Celebration of Specialness. As shot by cinematographer Ed Lachman, Texas becomes a hyper-realistic late-capitalist landscape of endless vistas, shopping malls and prefab metal buildings. In True Stories, Byrne uses his songs to stitch together pop iconography, voodoo rituals and a singular variety show - all in the service of uncovering the rich mysteries that lurk under the surface of everyday experience.