When I was in high school and college I fell hard for Jonathan Demme’s brilliant concert movie Stop Making Sense. I wasn’t really that big a fan of the Talking Heads at the time, but I loved the experience of seeing the movie. It made me a fan. It was unpredictable, kind of dangerous, and unmistakably cool. It was like a concept album, in a live concert, in a movie.
We’d always go see the movie out in Norfolk at the Naro, the old indie movie house with the big screen and the balcony. It is still our favorite place to see a movie, including our annual screening of It’s a Wonderful Life during the holidays. Our last visit was just a few weeks ago to see Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs.
Back in college there was nothing cooler than heading out to the Naro to a late show. Rocky Horror, The Wall, or my choice, Stop Making Sense. It would be packed. People would be sitting on the steps in the balcony when the seats would run out. The music was so loud that the balcony actually shook. Dancing would break out and occasionally people would end up on the stage, prompting the movie to shut off and boos from the crowd. It was an event for a short glorious time. It would eventually die off, of course. I don’t remember the last time the movie was shown there. Recently the theater has been having charity fund raiser screenings that sometimes bring back that event coolness. There will be costume contests and trivia and craft beer. We’ve been to showings of Halloween, Ferris Bueller, the Princess Bride, and Willie Wonka in recent years and they’ve been a blast. I’m hopping they add Stop Making Sense sometime soon.
There are so many cool moments in this movie and it really should be watched from beginning to end, but these are my favorites. Starting with one of my favorite songs of all time:
And then the iconic:
To all the running of:
And the Big:
Someone made a comment to one of these videos that perfectly sums up watching this movie again and thinking back to that time:
dave's word 
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