Hacker Cinema
True Stories
1986 · Film · 89 min
Directed by David Byrne
A small but growing Texas town, filled with strange and musical characters, celebrates its sesquicentennial and converge on a local parade and talent show.
6 positive3 neutralfrom 9 commenters
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9 comments on Hacker News
This is cool!
I do get it, these movies are most likely basically "worthless" for WB at this point.
Hell, I remember seeing Deathtrap and True Stories in the Wal-Mart $5 DVD bin 20 years ago.
This is still better than letting them basically be completely lost/unavailable and the ad revenue makes it a positive cashflow proposition I bet.
A link to just the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7Eup7JXScZyvRftA2Q5hv69XiegDm6tQ
From IMDb:
The 11th Hour (2007, Documentary, 7.2) The Wind and the Lion (1975, Adventure Epic, 6.8) Mr. Nice Guy (1997, Martial Arts Dark Comedy, 6.2) City Heat (1984, Buddy Cop, 5.5) Michael Collins (1996, Docudrama, 7.1) The Adventures Of Pluto Nash (2002, Space Sci-Fi Comedy, 3.9) Chaos Theory (2007, Comedy Drama Romance, 6.6) Mutiny on the Bounty (1962, Historical Globetrotting Adventure, 7.2) Dungeons & Dragons (2000, Adventure Fantasy, 3.7) Return Of The Living Dead Part II (1988, Zombie Horror Comedy, 5.7) The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990, Dark Comedy, 5.6) The Accidental Tourist (1988, Comedy Drama Romance, 6.7) Critters 4 (1992, Horror Sci-Fi, 4.1) Murder in the First (1995, Legal Thriller, 7.3) The Year of Living Dangerously (1982, Drama Romance War, 7.1) December Boys (2007, Drama Romance, 6.5) Waiting for Guffman (1996, Satire, 7.4) Lionheart (1987, Adventure Drama, 5.1) Oh, God! (1977, Comedy Fantasy, 6.6) Crossing Delancey (1988, Comedy Romance, 6.9) Price of Glory (2000, Drama Sport, 6.1) Flight of the Living Dead (2007, Horror, 5.1) Deal of the Century (1983, Dark Comedy Satire Crime, 4.6) Deathtrap (1982, Dark Comedy Suspense Mystery, 7.0) The Mission (1986, Historical Epic Jungle Adventure, 7.4) SubUrbia (1996, Comedy Drama, 6.7) Hot To Trot (1988, Comedy Fantasy, 4.5) True Stories (1986, Comedy Musical, 7.2) The Science of Sleep (2006, Quirky Comedy Drama Romance, 7.2) The Big Tease (1999, Comedy, 6.1)
Any other fans of the Byrne film "True Stories"?
True Stories is my favorite movie ever. Unique! I absolutely love the covers of Talking Heads songs throughout, especially "People Like Us" and "Papa Legba".
Wild Wild Life is my favorite Talking Heads song, and how does one even say that about any one TH song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=616-QGQyx-I
Happy to see another Talking Heads (TH) fanatic.
Pull Up The Roots has been the most impactful TH song for me so far. I was obsessed with it for about 6 months. I literally listened to it probably 2-3 times a day for those 6 months. I was in a point of my life where I felt like I needed radical change so "pull up the roots" was a powerful message for me. Also I love how weird and chaotic the message is and the song is just downright catchy to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQS6XfuH2wE
That whole Speaking In Tongues album is quite good. Definitely my favorite TH album. Great name for an album and very attractive cover art.
True Stories is also a very fun peak into the 80s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Stories_(film)
Trailer homes are pretty amazing, especially these days. One of my relations lived for a time in one, and it was nicer than any apartment I occupied in college, that's for sure!
I'm a big fan of prefab construction [shout out to Buckminster Fuller] -- the topic always brings to mind one of my favorite quotes from the movie "True Stories" [obviously tongue-in-cheek] :
"Metal buildings are the dream that architects had at the beginning of the 20th century. But they, themselves, don't realize it. That's because it doesn't take an architect to build a metal building. You just order it out of a catalog; it comes with a bunch of guys who put it together in a few days, maybe a week."
Two of my favorite movies are True Stories and Raising Arizona. Both are joyful, humane and wry looks at American culture, or at least how we idealize American culture.
Maron is a fine interviewer, but will digress into personal anecdotes too often for my liking -- something like "we met one time in the basement of this Milwaukee comedy club" and then go off on a tangent. It's not the worst thing but I really don't care for old war stories like that.
In any case, thanks for pointing this out.
I'm glad you recommended this. It's Marc Maron's podcast, of course, which is generally recorded in his garage. He recently had the pleasure of an hourlong interview with Barack Obama (in his garage).
Recently he has also interviewed Kim Gordon (formerly of Sonic Youth, but also an artist), and Mike Watt (Minutemen, Firehose, etc.). The Watt interview, especially, was just great. Such an original character.
Byrne is a shy and understated person, so he's a difficult interview subject. They didn't exactly click, but it's well worth listening to just to see what Byrne is up to these days. They touch on his interest in American folk art and culture (e.g., True Stories, album covers by Harold Finster, and his song about flyover country), and connect it to some of Byrne's musical tastes, which is a connection I had not made.
Watt: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_610_-_mike_watt
Gordon: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_588_-_kim_gordon
depends on the movie - old favorites, can help set the mood (your brain already knows whats going on-screen).. documentaries where you don't have to look at them all the time seem to be good too.
Anything new and action oriented will probably will make you loose your attention track.
Sometimes my brain is musiced-out and I need something else in the background. Some that I know by heart: Star Treks, Real Genius, Tron, War Games, Hackers, True Stories, Koyaanisquatsi, Slackers, Clerks. Working at home the idle/predictable conversion in the background sometimes helps.