What a marvellous thing this movie is, what a beauty. I think i can speak for everyone when saying that the movie where had Sean Penn dressed up as Robert Smith didn't look that interesting. It's true that it won the Prize of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival but somehow it didn't look this good at all. But it is. It's another proof why Sorrentino is one of the greatest filmmakers alive and i don't think he's recognized enough.
'This Must Be The Place' is titled after the fantastic Talking Heads' song and the lyrics have a lot to do throughout the whole movie and different versions of the song keep sounding in the background. Even former frontman David Byrne sings during a performance in a fantastic scene but let's not get into that yet.
Sorrentino depicts the life of a Cheyenne, retired rock star played by Penn living off his royalties with a very accommodated life, he lives in a castle with his understanding wife (played by Frances Mc Dormand) and hangs out with a young girl (Eve Hewson), and there's not much more than that. He's completely done with music and kinda out of touch with reality, with his make up, messy hair and black clothes. That's all on the surface but in reality he lives a tortured life, he gave up music because he feels he has to punish himself after some incidents that happened in the past, and that's all i can tell about the pot without revealing too much.
Sorrentino creates a beautiful story with a character that you grow fond of, despite his eccentric looks, Cheyenne is a beautiful soul that even has the innocence of a young kid, and that's also one of his issues, that he hasn't grown up. Penn really embodies his role and despite usually seeing him in more aggressive roles in other movies, here he really gets to your heart. I might sound really soft and tender but really, it is like that. And that's what makes his story and the film so charming.
Besides the acting, and as usual, the director creates amazing music moments like the epic performance of David Byrne singing 'This Must Be The Place' in an astonishing scene. The rest of the soundtrack fits perfectly into the story (beside the tracks by the Pieces of Shit), and the many covers of the film's title song are simply fantastic to the story - i'm adding all of them below because after watching the movie i listened to them nonstop, as well as Gavin Friday's song 'Lord I'm Coming'.
I really can't recommend this movie more, it's not often that you watch a film and end up feeling like you've seen a great thing and this is exactly what happens with 'This Must Be The Place'. It plays on your mind for days and i adore when that happens to me. Enjoy the few songs i'm posting after the cut and admire the greatness of Byrne's performance, and as always, some of the stills that i loved the best. Seriously, this is an instant favorite.
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