Back before the pandemic made everything stop making sense, David Byrne opened his American Utopia at Broadway’s Hudson Theater, the most entertaining show in town. Everybody knew it, and tickets sold like hot cakes. Of course, so much in America had stopped making sense prior to the unanticipated lockdown; as upbeat as American Utopia was, a sly critique marked every song in this unique musical, immigration, leadership, and Black Lives Matter. Now that Spike Lee has made a film of the staged performance, with the great Ellen Kuras’ cinematography, and now that the film has opened the Toronto Film Festival last week, and will be featured in the upcoming New York Film Festival before it airs on HBO in October, a new audience can have a close up view of the most exuberant, life affirming, and topical musical, just before our elections.

Not every show works as well on screen. Spike Lee, feted remotely in the past year, at Cannes, Film at Lincoln Center’s Chaplin Award (let’s just say, we owe him a huge party at Tavern on the Green or at least on the balcony of the Metropolitan Opera House) is a national treasure. His collaboration with David Byrne excells with some behind the scenes moments: the band of bare-footed dancing musicians, clad in suits, and a particularly resonant “Say the Name” with the faces of Treyvon Martin, George Floyd, and too many others on a scrim, plus the list of too many more. Justice is in demand, because THIS just does not stop. Talking Heads fans will be elated with “Burning Down the House,” and other signature tunes, as will Americans longing for an America that starts making sense.