Stop Making Sense

PG

Released Oct 18, 1984

1 hr. 28 min.

Documentary

Music

TRAILER

for Stop Making Sense: 40th Anniversary Re-Release Trailer

List

100%

69 Reviews

Tomatometer

97%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Filmmaker Jonathan Demme captures Talking Heads and an ecstatic ensemble of musicians at their exhilarating best in this iconic live performance.

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Critics Consensus

Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense captures the energetic, unpredictable live act of peak Talking Heads with color and visual wit.

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Perry B

Stop Making Sense is a superb concert movie. It begins with one man and his guitar coming on stage and slowly adds more musicians to the stage and builds up to a full band with percussion and backup singers. The songs are very catchy and the performers are excellent with dancing and a lot of energy. I was already familiar with Talking Heads going into this movie, however, I think even the average music listener would enjoy this film. It doesn't get any better in this genre.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/21/24

Full Review

Tyler G

Transcendent as a concert set filmed start to finish. Delightfully weird, passionate, soulful, moving, all the above. It teleports you back decades, making you feel like you're on the floor front and center. Loved it.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/05/24

Full Review

Garry M

It is simply THE best movie concert that has ever been created EVER! I love the music anyway and I must have seen this over 100 times, it never gets tired, if I could go back anywhen in time, I would go back to this gig. LOVE IT!!! And nothing is better than this.....is it?

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/15/23

Full Review

Jordan

it's terrible 😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬😡🤬😡😡🤬🤬😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬😡😡😡🤬🫡😡🤬😡😡🤬😡😡🤬🤬😡🥶🤬🤬😡😡😥

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

11/30/23

Full Review

Lariste L

A hell of of a movie. Jonathan Demme (pronounced Dem-Me) directed this iconic and at times rather odd film that makes the most of Talking Heads pop choruses by added funk rhythms, excellent backing vocals and a lot of live energy. Part of the enduring nature of the film is how spontaneous, rhythmic and natural the performances are but the minimalist lighting and simple, grey outfits are really at odds with stock 80s pop presentation. Arguably, T.H. were a "70s and 80s" type of band, but something that happens over the three live concerts compiled here, with some additional overdubs, is the volume, texture and impact of the material comes across properly; a lot of 80s pop radio mixes were oddly stilted and trebly sounding. The movie doesn't really have a "plot" or added interview filler - just great band performances with David Byrne's theatricality, lighting setups and projections and an extended cast of excellent touring musicians.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

11/05/23

Full Review

Patricia S

Nothing, nothing like it. Must see. It will stay with you!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/01/23

Full Review

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Jonathan Demme

Director

David Byrne

Self

Chris Frantz

Self

Tina Weymouth

Self

Jerry Harrison

Self

Bernie Worrell

Self

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Stop Making Sense: 40th Anniversary Re-Release Trailer

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Tim Cogshell

FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)

Bring the lights down, and it's just like a [live] performance. I promise you.

Oct 4, 2023

Full Review

Ed Potton

Times (UK)

Everyone plays out of their skin but Byrne is the inspired star, hitting himself in the face, doing laps of the stage and reappearing for Girlfriend Is Better in his famous giant suit.

Rated: 5/5

Sep 25, 2023

Full Review

Michael Phillips

Chicago Tribune

The movie is the finest imaginable version of the Talking Heads’ Speaking in Tongues tour. The concert’s physical staging elements, introduced in pieces and segments, with elegant and wryly suggestive words, create an aura of pristine unease.

Rated: 4/4

Sep 22, 2023

Full Review

Yago García

Cinemanía (Spain)

One of the best concert films in history in the cinema. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 5/5

Mar 7, 2024

Full Review

Steven Galvin

Film Ireland Magazine

Stop Making Sense is probably the most famous of all concert-based documentaries – its unfiltered, boundless joy has prompted the footage to enter history ahead of any other similar concerts recorded at the time.

Dec 8, 2023

Full Review

Ryan Silberstein

MovieJawn

Stop Making Sense is the ultimate concert movie, and remains an essential text for the form as well as a perfect document of the joy to be found in the Talking Heads music

Nov 22, 2023

Full Review

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Synopsis

Filmmaker Jonathan Demme captures Talking Heads and an ecstatic ensemble of musicians at their exhilarating best in this iconic live performance.

Director: Jonathan Demme
Executive Producer: Gary Kurfirst
Screenwriter: Jonathan Demme, Talking Heads
Production Co: Arnold Stiefel Company, Talking Heads
Rating: PG (Brief Suggestive Material)
Genre: Documentary, Music
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 18, 1984, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Sep 29, 2023
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 1, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $4.0M
Sound Mix: Stereo
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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