True Stories / YMMV

Audience-Alienating Premise: A low-key alternative rock musical about a quirky rural town is difficult to market, and a big reason the film flopped at the box office and has never been terribly popular outside of dyed-in-the-wool David Byrne/Talking Heads fans.
Awesome Music: Aside from Talking Heads songs, David Byrne composed all of the incidental music, performed by Kronos Quartet.
Base-Breaking Character: Depending on the viewer, Louis's odd, exaggerated tactics in finding a wife are either creepy and off-putting or quirky and entertaining (though the inherent likability of John Goodman, especially in his younger, somewhat slimmer days, probably makes it easier to overlook the character's flaws).
Covered Up: In an unusually self-inflicted example, the Talking Heads versions of the film's songs remain far better-known than the versions sung by the film's cast, if only because the film itself was a commercial disappointment and remains somewhat obscure to this day, to David Byrne's chagrin (as he considers the film versions of the songs the definitive ones).
Critical Dissonance: The album Talking Heads released of their own versions of the movie's songs was quite successful, reaching No. 17 on the Billboard chart and also going gold, but critical opinion was mostly negative and David Byrne in particular is rather annoyed by its existence, due to it being mandated by their record label.
Hilarious in Hindsight
- Miss Rollings is mildly riffing TV commercials!
- One line from "Hey Now" is "I am the king of the world!"
- The odd outfits in the "Wild Wild Life" and "Dream Operator" sequences could be sees as early examples of Cosplay.
Memetic Mutation: The internet would like to remind you that Louis maintains a consistant panda bear shape.
Narm Charm:
- Much of the film runs on this. Its hook is its celebration of the idiosyncrasies of small-town Americana and it's equally quirky inhabitants, especially the talent show, which is full of peculiar acts not that far-removed from real-life local Texan talent. It's also a celebration of just how normal all of it is to the point of being downright wholesome.
- Also on a filmmaking level. Some of the shots are oddly framed, and the Random Events Plot can be a bit muddled and unfocused, but knowing that this is the work of an artistically-minded musician enthusiastically tackling a new medium for the first time, trying out new ideas and making statements while keeping his tongue at least a little bit in his cheek, raises it above a mere Vanity Project.
One-Scene Wonder: With the film's episodic structure and large cast, there are several of these, most prominently the preacher (played by John Ingle) whose Conspiracy Kitchen Sink sermon eventually turns into a performance of "Puzzlin' Evidence".
Retroactive Recognition:
- Co-writer Stephen Tobolowsky was pretty early in his career, and he plays a bit part as the mayor, making it easy to miss him and only recognize him later.
- Louis Fyne is played by John Goodman, whose breakthrough roles in Raising Arizona and Roseanne were just a year or two away.
- A young Swoosie Kurtz as Miss Rollings, aka The Lazy Woman.
Signature Scene:
- The lip-syncing scene with "Wild Wild Life," due to an alternate cut being used as the song's music video.
- The "Love for Sale" sequence using TV commercials of the era is also well-known for its music video version.
Sweet Dreams Fuel: "Dream Operator." Then taken up to eleven with "Glass Operator," the instrumental reprise on glass harp which can be heard on the soundtrack.
This Is Your Premise on Drugs: Byrne described the film as "60 Minutes on acid."
Unintentional Period Piece:
- The "Shopping Is a Feeling" sequence chronicles the height of shopping mall culture in the 1980s.
- The video for "Love for Sale" is a time capsule of 1986 TV commercials.
- Zig-zagged with the line about Steve Jobs no longer being the head of Apple; in 1986, the line was fairly topical, as Jobs had just been fired the year earlier after a feud with CEO John Sculley. However, Jobs came and went from the company several more times for the rest of his life, causing the line to cycle in and out of this trope on a loop; eventually, it was rendered timeless by Jobs' death in 2011.
Values Resonance: While a lot of the film now seems like an Unintentional Period Piece, things like the dominance of the computer tech industry and authority figures (like the preacher) espousing conspiracy theories remain relevant.
- Also, while shopping malls themselves have mostly fallen out of style compared to the height of their popularity in the 80's and 90's, the musings that Byrne shares on the nature of shopping culture itself still hold plenty of water in the modern era.
Vindicated by Cable: Despite flopping at the box office, HBO airings and home video gave the film Cult Classic status.

YMMV / True Stories

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