True Stories

"The other characters range from a woman who seems to have lived a life straight out of The National Enquirer, complete with references to space aliens and Elvis Presley, to another woman who is so rich that she spends her whole life in bed watching TV. Then there's the preacher who turns his sermon into a lecture on conspiracy theories, with gospel singers backing him up."

David Byrne In ‘True Stories’

"Mr. Byrne explains, in his written introduction, that the film eschews anything resembling big issues, and that 'I deal with stuff that's too dumb for people to have bothered to formulate opinions on.'"

True Stories

"A hundred twins are not going to make or break a movie, and the average audience is not going to notice more than a fraction of them."

Re-View: Finding value in ‘True Stories’

Reuben Andrews takes a look at a film he feels has been largely underrated, and hopes it may find higher status in the current climate. You might find it a welcome break from contemporary absurdity.

‘True Stories’: Touring Texas With David Byrne

Virgil, Tex., flat, cement-hard, shimmeringly uglybeautiful, holds the same fascination for David Byrne, who made it up, as Nashville did for Robert Altman or Grover's Corners for Thornton Wilder or the Emerald City of Oz for L. Frank Baum.

The Obsessions of David Byrne

Spalding Grey, the new-wave, Mark Twain, tells his side of True Stories, the first movie directed by (and starring) "Talking Head" David Byrne, one of the greatest talents of his generation. A report from the "far side of the ordinary"

True Stories

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.

The Tuesday Zone: ‘True Stories’ (1986)

True Stories (1986) opens with a young girl ambling down a long road; the fields and sky continue out of the shot in every direction, and due to the complete stillness of the camera, there is a feeling of openness and nonchalance.

People Like Us: The Specialness of David Byrne’s TRUE STORIES

Virgil, Texas, is weirdly familiar - and surprisingly lovely.

So Much Specialness

How David Byrne's 'True Stories' captured a lost Texas and a prescient picture of today.

The Year in Film: Brains Over Budget

In 1986, big movie themes came in small packages

TRUE STORIES (1986)

True Stories (1986) is one of the quirkiest and most original movies of the 1980s.

True Stories

“This part of the country’s been through a lot of changes. Not all small ones either,” David Byrne tells us at the start of True Stories in a voice well described by Roger Ebert as “so flat that you have to listen to the pauses to figure out when the sentences end.”

Looking Back: True Stories (1986)

“True Stories” is self consciously odd and artsy but intriguing in its time capsule of American idealism.

Second Glance: David Byrne’s Wonderfully Quirky Small-Town Musical, ‘True Stories’

A loving look back at the Talking Heads frontman's odd and criminally underappreciated 1986 comedy/musical.

David Byrne only made one movie, but it’s one nobody else could have made

It’s hard to overstate the impact David Byrne had on me—and, I imagine, every kid who ever grew up feeling like an outcast.