100

(35mm)

MKE Film Fest #3

A coked-out, energized, miraculous face-melter of a communal gathering. Artistry, creativity and movement as one big happy family, collaborative with the void surrounding their band on stage. Track by track, member by member, anxiety is slowly replaced with honest-to-god jubilation; blissful and radiant, searing and uncommonly truthful, startling and grooving. Each space explored, each emotional plateau, and each harmonious movement is uncharted. Even though it's more than 30 years old, Stop Making Sense - Jonathan Demme's masterpiece of orchestration - is alien in scope, execution, and frazzled energy, plunging into exuberance just when sheer joy somehow doesn't cut it. How did mere mortals conceive this?!?!?!

Highlight of the night: seeing this in a packed house. Various conga-lines went around the theater, glow sticks intact, swaying against the shadow of the image. Some danced all night. Some stayed seated and observed the edits, the motions, the euphoric highs rising like orgasms. Some went in and out for alcohol. No matter your place or your presence, you were not an individual, but a driving force in an expanded energy. Total "top 5 all-time" theatrical experience right here. I'll never forget it.