Stop Making Sense

My review of Stop Making Sense on Blu-ray Disc is online at Filmfreakcentral.net:

It's not simply that the on-stage enthusiasm is infectious, but that something special is coming up: the room is about to be blitzed by one of the world's greatest live bands in polyrhythmic rock-and-roll mode.

2 Comments

Hi Bryant,
Belatedly read your STOP MAKING SENSE review just now, and you are sooo very right about that cut during "Once in a Lifetime" being one of the greatest in any movie. Goosebumps all over, every time I see it. Goosebumps just thinking about it as I type this, in fact. Same as it ever was.

Matt | November 6, 2009 4:15 PM

Hi, Matt. Thanks for the note. The first time I ever saw that scene from Stop Making Sense was actually way back when USA's old-school music-video show Night Flight programmed it, and I watched it on the little 14-inch Toshiba TV set in my bedroom. It made an impression on my little teenaged brain -- almost like receiving a transmission from another country.

Man, I've watched a lot of rock-and-roll movies, but is there another concert film that has so perfectly mated form (by which I mean a cineaste's aesthetic) to content? I'm thinking The Last Waltz, Home of the Brave, Sign "O" the Times ... but they never really get there. Art rockers for the win, I guess.