David Byrne's TRUE STORIES (1986) — 40th Anniversary!

In celebration of its 40th anniversary, 7th House is very proud to present TRUE STORIES (1986), David Byrne’s singular, sun-dappled ode to the extraordinariness of ordinary American life — presented for its first LA screening in nearly half a decade! As an added bonus, the evening will begin with a selection of Byrne-directed music videos!

Though often remembered as a cult curio orbiting the legacy of Talking Heads, the film stands as something more expansive: Byrne’s only narrative feature and a distilled expression of his singular way of seeing. Inspired by tabloid headlines collected while on tour, Byrne began by making drawings of characters and events inspired by those clippings — things he could imagine existing in one place. From these sketches and fragments emerged the fictional town of Virgil, Texas, where the townspeople prepare for a sesquicentennial Celebration of Specialness. What unfolds is less a conventional narrative than a mosaic — a portrait rendered through Byrne’s gently askew point of view. Shot by Ed Lachman in compositions that render parking lots and corporate facades strangely sublime, freeways, strip malls, and corporate campuses become modern cathedrals; shopping malls transform into communal stages; television flickers alongside private longing. In Byrne’s hands — as writer, director, co-composer (alongside musical contributions from Terry Allen and Meredith Monk), and on-screen guide — the everyday is not mocked, but illuminated.

Acting as our coolly curious tour guide — drifting through town in a red convertible, occasionally narrating, always observing — Byrne filters Virgil’s rituals and eccentricities with affection rather than irony. If his work with the band exalted the nervous poetry of modern life, True Stories stretches that sensibility across a town-sized tapestry. The ensemble cast forms a gently surreal chorus: an endearing early-career John Goodman as lovelorn engineer Louis Fyne; the brilliant writer-performer and monologist Spalding Gray as corporate patriarch Earl Culver; the legendary Pop Staples (of The Staples Singers) as the town’s spiritual healer; and Swoosie Kurtz as the languid “Lazy Woman,” drifting through consumer fantasy. Byrne himself remains the genial connective thread throughout, joined briefly by karaoke cameos from his Talking Heads bandmates Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison.

As Byrne began thinking about the songs that might connect these disparate characters, he imagined a structure that would not be a conventional musical, “where people burst into song for unjustified reasons,” or a pantomime of a story like so many music videos of the era. Instead, the music would grant the town’s neighbors and coworkers a liberating form of expression — a means of “exposing their insides to everyone else in the town.” Music is not accompaniment here but connective tissue — the emotional architecture of Virgil itself. Songs move between gospel, pop, polka, and love ballad, allowing private longing to surface in melody rather than confession.

Hovering gracefully between satire and sincerity, True Stories observes late-capitalist optimism, technological wonder, and creeping isolation with equal curiosity, never losing sight of the stubborn human desire for connection. Four decades on, it feels less like a time capsule than a gently prophetic folk opera about American life — about malls and media, corporate dreams and private longing, and the ways we try to harmonize who we are with who we hope to become.

Dir. David Byrne, 1986, 89 mins, United States, English, Rated PG, Digital.

Please email [email protected] or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.

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With some exception, The Philosophical Research Society’s 7th House Screenings does not typically provide advisory warnings about potentially upsetting content or subject matter, as sensitivities are particular to each viewer. Please be sure to read event listings, research on the web, or visit Common Sense Media, IMDb, and DoesTheDogDie.com for thorough info on content and age-appropriateness. If you have any specific content advisory questions, please email [email protected].

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