Summer Film Series preview for July 26

The organizers of the Summer Film Series at San Juan Community Theatre send along a preview of this week’s film. The showing starts at 7 p.m. Admission is pay-what-you-can. For this season only, fresh popcorn is available for free.

David Byrne’s American Utopia

Musical, not rated
Run time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

This film is a collaborative effort of two towering multitalented geniuses, David Byrne and Spike Lee. Byrne, a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker is best known as the founder of the Talking Heads. He has received an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, a Tony Award, and a Golden Globe Award, and is an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Lee is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and a tenured professor at NYU. He has won numerous accolades for his work, including an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a Student Academy Award, a BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, two Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, the NAACP’s President’s Award, and the Cannes Grand Prix.

Lee captures Byrne’s Broadway show American Utopia, in which a cast of international musicians not only play many of Byrne’s songs but also perform intricate dance routines somewhat akin to a marching band on steroids (or something else!). As the film critic Tim Robey said in his review, “What they’ve managed to do is create a permanent record of this amazing show, which I think will go down as one of the most meticulously crafted and contemplated performances by a major musician in history.” It is not to be missed and is suitable for absolutely everyone.

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