David Byrne’s American Utopia Review
David Byrne’s American Utopia is one of the most powerful expressions of joy and hope ever captured on film since 1984's Stop Making Sense, a movie that a lot of people consider to be one of, if not, the best concert film ever made. David Byrne, his band, Spike Lee, and his team has somehow put together a concert film that rivals even that. The stage and art direction is minimal and bare and it's only Byne, the band, and their instruments on stage dressed in grey suits and (mostly) barefoot. It's to have people look at other people and the performers are equally as receptive to the audience as the audience to them. It's a giant party and everyone's invited.
The show starts off simple and slowly adds more and more voices while showing off some simple and easy-to-follow dance choreography performed by Byrne, and dancer/vocalists Chris Giarmo and Tendayi Kuumba. Eventually, the whole band essentially becomes a marching band and it all adds up to one of the sweetest and most uplifting encores. Like the idea of Dada art, the music and performance hold meaning beyond words and it tries to make sense of an often senseless world -a moment on max display in the Talking Heads classic, I Zimbra along with its introduction and performance in the movie. At one point, Byrne mentioned a funny anecdote of writers and journalists asking him if his show had a playback track -because it would be reasonable to assume that since the band is so incredible and precise, it probably can't be done live. He introduces them one by one and, it turns out everything we hear in the show was, in fact, done live. As a musician, that kind of blows my mind.
Ellen Kuras' cinematography kicks into high gear during the show's second half like in the song Blind, the performers bounce and shift due to an invisible force that pushes them back and forth while the camera tilts side to side, making it feel like it's manipulating the stage's centre of gravity while a light casts giant shadows behind the band and makes it appear like everyone's dancing around a giant fire pit. The excitement erupts right after with an explosive rendition of Burning Down the House and it's as if the camera is actually dancing along to the music.
During its final moments, Byrne and Co performs Janelle Monáe's single version of Hell You Talmbout with the film showing the faces, names, family of the black lives that were ended by the police. It's a striking moment with a song that feels just as relevant as it was when it was first released in 2015. As joyous and fun as the concert is, it's also very conscious with moments beforehand of David Byrne encouraging folks to go out and vote and to make a difference in their country and around the world. The Janelle song shouts at the audience and urges us to say the names of those who are no longer physically with us. It sends out a beautiful message and is hands down the most emotional moment in the whole show.
American Utopia is a must watch. It's immediate, conscious, irresistible, and one of the most endearing concert movies I've ever seen in my life.