If you think of it, it exists somewhere. Review on True Stories

Let me begin by saying that I hate Hollywood musicals in general. I make a few exceptions to this rule - South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999) and True Stories (1985) are two such exceptions. True Stories is an offbeat movie directed by David Byrne, the lead singer of the 1980s band, (one of my favourites) The Talking Heads. The movie is inspired by headlines from various tabloid magazines. (''Starving peasants sell their bodies to vampires for blood money!'') The year is 1985, and Texas is commemorating its sesquicentennial anniversary as a state in the union. Byrne's character, the narrator, drives into a small town named Virgil to observe their ''Celebration of Specialness''. Byrne comments ironically, ''But this place is completely normal!'' when mentioning this event. We meet several peculiar (to say the least) characters from town, many of them working at the local microelectronics corporation, Varicorp, run by Earl Culver (Spaulding Gray) who hasn't spoken directly to his wife Kay (Annie McEnroe) in years - they communicate through their kids. There's ''Lewis, Lewis Fyne'' (John Goodman), hopeless romantic who is on searching for ''Matrimony with the capital M'' and has a Wife Wanted sign outside his house. There's Ramon (Tito Larriva) who believes that everyone has their own frequency and he's the only one with a radio - the only one who can pick up their signals. There's The Lying Woman (Jo Harvey Allen) who claims, among other things, to have shot JFK for the money and to have written more than half of Elvis' songs and Billie Jean (''SOMEONE had to!''). There's The Cute Woman (Alix Elias) who thinks everything in life has to be cute and purty and can not stand an ounce of sadness in her life. There's The Lazy Woman, Miss Rollings (Swoosie Kurtz), who hasn't gotten out of bed in years. She's not sick. She's got so much money, she doesn't have to. The movie follows David Byrne as he meets these characters while making matter-of-fact observations about highway slang, prefabricated metal buildings, shopping malls, urbanisation and other aspects of modern life (''As the song says, 'It's a scientific lifestyle'''). We also follow Lewis in his quest for true love, as he struggles through numerous dates gone wrong, puts out a TV ad (''That's 844-WIFE. Won't you please call? Serious enquiries only.'') and finally in an act of desperation, consults Mr. Tucker (Roebuck ''Pops'' Staples), a voodoo magician. The movie ends with the town's Celebration of Specialness' last event - the great show at night, featuring local talent, including Lewis Fyne and The Country Bachelors. Will someone call Lewis' WIFE hotline? Will it be a ''serious enquiry''? Watch True Stories to find out! Byrne's narration is full of funny non-sequiturs (''I had something to say about the difference between American and European cities, but I forgot what it is. I have it written in a book at home somewhere'') and, at the same time, what I thought were some really shrewd observations about life in general (''I really enjoy forgetting. When I first come to a place, I notice all the little details. I notice the way the sky looks. The color of white paper. The way people walk. Doorknobs. Everything. Then I get used to the place and I don't notice those things anymore. So only by forgetting can I see the place again as it really is.''). The movie has a lot of other peculiar things added to the mix, in typical Byrne style - the 50 sets of identical twins, or the really weird fashion show at the shopping mall, for example. The cast performs extremely well. John Goodman stole the show and gives a very memorable performance. The BEST part: the soundtrack is superb - the background score is perfect, and of course the movie features nine original songs by The Talking Heads, but many of them are performed by the cast, and each and every cast member's performance was commendable. The cast features in a weird lip-sync contest at a local bar, where they all lip-sync to Wild Wild Life (one of my all-time favourite TH songs, featuring cameo appearances by the rest of the band - Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison and Chris Frantz), Love For Sale is playing on the television while The Lazy Woman changes channels trying to escape an advertizement blitzkreig, Kay Culver sings Dream Operator during the fashion show, the preacher (John Ingle) makes Puzzling Evidence a part of a really funny sermon that attempts to implicate the secret socities that have been governing US policy since the second World War (''Do you run out of Kleenex, toilet paper and paper towels at the same time? You KNOW it's true!''), Hey Now is performed by a bunch of kids loitering around the newly-developing suburban settlements around Virgil, Papa Legba is part of the voodoo magician's invocation to the Gods to come save Lewis Fyne's life and find him a wife, John Goodman does a great rendition of People Like Us and the Talking Heads sing the end title song, City of Dreams. Among non-Talking Heads tracks featured in the movie, my favourite is Cocktail Desperado by Terry Allen & The Panhandle Mystery Band, and comes just before Wild Wild Life. Some trivia for you - I didn't mention a song on purpose in the list above. Remember Tito and Tarantula, the guys that did After Dark in the movie From Dusk Till Dawn during Salma Hayek's dance? Tito is none other than Tito Larriva, the guy who plays Ramon in True Stories. And yes, ''Tarantula'', the guy with the eyepatch, is also in this movie, and they perform a Talking Heads song before John Goodman comes in to sing his song. This song inspired the UK band On A Friday to change their name. The name of the song - Radiohead! Tito and Tarantula do an awesome version of Radiohead in the movie, a version I think is better than the original! Tito and Tarantula appear in quite a few other movies - Desperado, for example. In conclusion, True Stories is a very memorable musical - a quintessential 80s film full of quintessential 80s music by one of the most famous and best bands of the 80s, The Talking Heads. I give this