David Byrne's American Utopia

2020 Directed by Spike Lee

A Spike Lee joint from the acclaimed Broadway show.

A filmed version of David Byrne's Broadway show, a unifying musical celebration that inspires audiences to connect to each other and to the global community.

David Byrne Chris Giarmo Angie Swan Jacqueline Acevedo Bobby Wooten Iii Mauro Refosco Tendayi Kuumba Gustavo Di Dalva Karl Mansfield Stephane San Juan Daniel Freedman Tim Keiper

105 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★★★ 22

feels reductive to just call david byrne a musician when i think he's really the world's greatest children's television host with a brain that probably functions like one of those extremely complicated million-gear machines you see in a children's book. he's raffi for adults. his work rides a very goofy line of earnest loving optimism and sarcastic cynical criticism, like an alien who doesn't understand why we do the things but has come to love our patterns all the same.
maybe i just think of his work as childish because it always makes me feel childlike; untethered and happy, swaddled in the comfy and smart way he speaks but encouraged by the exuberant, full and constructed feeling of his music…
Review by Stevie ★★★★½ 5

David Byrne’s
American Utopia
streaming exclusively
on HBO Max
○
く|)へ
〉 Hamilton streaming
￣￣┗┓ exclusively on Disney+
┗┓　ヾ○ｼ
┗┓ ヘ/
┗┓ノ
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Review by davidehrlich ★★★★½ 7

Even in an era when rock shows were all about orgiastic excess, former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne made a warm and inviting spectacle out of his own smallness. The signature image from Jonathan Demme’s totemic concert documentary “Stop Making Sense” finds Byrne getting lost inside his own comically large silver business suit; maybe it was a Kabuki-like expression of a man being swallowed alive by runaway capitalism, or maybe — as Byrne maintains — he just wanted to make it look like his head had shrunken down to a funny size.
Not that it was ever big to begin with. As radical in his humility as he was humble in his radicality, art rock’s very own Mr. Rogers welcomed…
Review by iana ★★★★½ 2

oh the singular joy of seeing a crowd lose their shit at once in a lifetime
Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★★★ 16

hate to admit that i feel very "let's separate the art from the artist" about david byrne and pretty much david byrne only. too many bad stories sprinkled through his career history that feel entirely antithetical to his work and it bums me out! i choose to celebrate the david byrne i can only know through his work, and not the david byrne i would know by being treated like shit as his bandmate and knowing he left a literal turd in the room of a hotel he didn't like 😌 i wish he treated the heads better 😌 i just likey da songs 😌 american utopia so good 😌

edit: ugh, i don’t like reading this back later- look,…
Review by Rob Whisman ★★★★

there are only two people i consider geniuses: david byrne and the first person to pretend they were walking down stairs behind a couch. and i’d honestly believe you if you told me david byrne’s the one who invented that
Review by Sean Fennessey ★★★★ 3

No one gets it like David Byrne gets it, an artist who somehow translates alienation and disenfranchisement into positivity, decency, inclusion, and shameless dancing. A genuinely inspiring person with more good songs than just about anyone who started after 1975. I felt my heart pause and grow a little when "Slippery People" started. Spike Lee does a lot that Jonathan Demme didn't do in STOP MAKING SENSE—overhead cinematography, pitiless closeups on faces and feet, an acknowledgement of the audience. It's with purpose—it's not a surrealist exercise, it's a communal jubilee. What a bookend.
Review by Matt Singer ★★★★½

AMERICAN UTOPIA might be the most joyful thing that made me incredibly sad. 2020!
Time isn’t holding us. Time isn’t after us.
Review by Ella Kemp ★★★★½ 2

I don’t think there is anyone in the world like David Byrne and I wouldn’t want there to be. Gave me the same feeling as Stop Making Sense of somehow breathing just a bit more oxygen than the world would usually allow, feeling your heart beat a little, a lot bigger. One Fine Day cracks me open. It’s all fucking glorious, will rewatch to death.
Review by allain 11

UTOPIA starts with YOU…
David Byrne really is a gift that keeps on giving. David Byrne’s American Utopia is a recorded musical film of the recently held Broadway show from Byrne’s recently released solo album, performer by David Byrne himself with an international musical ensemble. Nothing beats the feeling of watching a live theatrical performance, but the documented versions offer perspectives that not even the theatergoers see, and Spike Lee managed to perfectly capture the energy and enthusiasm of Byrne and his ensemble, while showcasing multiple angles of the performance in an almost two-hour film.
Byrne’s grey suit will trigger Talking Heads fans of the big one he wore on tour, signaling that this might be 2020’s version of Stop…
Review by Ethan Colburn ★★★★½ 9

This definitely confirms it: David Byrne has been having an uninterrupted existential crisis for the last 45 years.
It's truly amazing that his satire on American capitalism seems as relevant as it did in the 80s. Unlike Jerry Seinfeld doing bits about iPhones, it doesn't feel like he is trying to bend to be more relevant to the times, but more like he has always known what we needed. I think it is because he was always an outsider. He often sings about waking up to a realization or seeing his world through a different lens. The world has evolved but it hasn't fundamentally changed, just as his message evolved but remains the same.
This is Spike Lee's best movie…
Review by Gabriel Gundacker 2

The absolute sauce!

Recent reviews

Review by Sean Kelly ★★★½

Definitely no Stop Making Sense, probably because I have a deeper connection to the handful of Talking Heads songs in the set than the newer material that made up the bulk of the show.
Review by mariux ★★★½

Although I still believe this is a theatrical experience to be experienced live, Spike Lee and Ellen Kuras do their best to capture all the dimensions of this brilliant show.
Review by Sam ★★★★★

Between this, Stop Making Sense, and True Stories, David Byrne gives me so much joy. He’s just a warm fuzzy that it’s nice to take a breather with. I prefer the music generally in Stop Making Sense, but there are a lot of highlights within the show and stage work here, as well as filmmaking prowess from Spike Lee. This whole thing felt like David Byrne’s TED Talk on life, and I enjoyed he ride immensely.
Review by Kevin ★★★★½

I just love the red-headed guy so much.
Review by Jeff Giles ★★★★

Visually absorbing and emotionally affecting in a way most concert films can only aspire to be.
Review by Shane Cannon ★★★★★

I want to do a stage show called 'Shane Cannon's American Zootopia' that's a reenactment of American Utopia with me in David Byrne cosplay and everyone else in fursuit heads
Review by Josh ★★★½ 2

Gotta admit I liked it less the second time, but I still enjoyed nodding my head to This Must Be the Place.
Review by ElPato ★★★★½

Speaking to the beauty of looking at other people ( + this must be the place ) made me burst into tears.
Review by eroticoffee

American Utropolis
Review by Embem12 ★★★★★

Life-affirming and joyous. Instant mood booster. Had a smile on my face the whole time watching this. Would have been amazing to see this live.
Review by jffsullivan ★★★★

The Beatles who?
Review by Jake Blackman ★★★★½

The picture quality of this performance flick is so fucking good that there were several moments I forgot that everything I was watching was happening in front of a live audience. Watching this was very heartwarming, and has made me realize that I really need to get my shit together and finally watch STOP MAKING SENSE (1984). The performance of "I Zimbra" was nothing short of mesmerizing.