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Mon, Feb 6 at 3:30pm, 8:00pm

TRUE STORIES

  • Dir. David Byrne
  • USA
  • 1986
  • 89 min.
  • PG
  • DCP Restoration
  • Assistive Listening
  • Hearing Loop
TRUE STORIES

Part of Staff Picks, Restoration Roundup, and Music City Mondays

Programmed by Olivia, who says, “There are parallels that exist between old Nashville and Virgil, Texas and the world we live in today. David Byrne might even look slightly akin to our beloved, yet feared, Techs the Robot Cowboy from 100 Oaks Mall.”  


Talking Heads singer David Byrne plays host to this bizarre patchwork of tabloid-inspired tales, set in the fictional town of Virgil, Texas. Cruising the streets in his cherry-red drop-top, Byrne introduces viewers to the local eccentrics gearing up for the town’s 150th anniversary. They include a community leader with a thing for veggies (Spalding Gray), a woman so lazy she won’t leave her bed (Swoosie Kurtz), a lovelorn country singer (John Goodman), plus cameos from Pops Staples and more.

4K DCP scan supervised by David Byrne and cinematographer Edward Lachman, with new 5.1 audio.

“Joyous, daft and hauntingly original, TRUE STORIES is Byrne's magical mystery tour of Texas: an introduction to the imaginary town of Virgil and its faintly surreal folks.” —Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times (Oct 23, 1986) 

“TRUE STORIES is an ‘Our Town’ for our time, a slightly surreal portrait of the fictional frontier village of Virgil, Texas, sprung from a pancake landscape and hogtied with freeways.” —Rita Kempley, Washington Post (Nov 7, 1986)

“There are more than 50 sets of twins in David Byrne's TRUE STORIES, I learned by studying the press notes, and perhaps we should pause here for a moment to meditate upon that fact…. Consider the state of mind of the person who decided the film should have 50 sets of twins.” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (Oct 31, 1986)