Popular reviews

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  Review by Ian West ★★★★★ 74

  Starman means a lot to me, so I’ll get this out of the way first. I love Starman so much—the story, the cast, the pacing, the score, and Carpenter’s direction... especially since (at least on paper) he’s the last person I would ever suspect or choose to make this kind of picture. I don’t revisit this often and there’s a reason for that, which I’ll go into because I think it’s time to change that...

  Jenny Hayden: Love is, um, it's when you care more for someone else than you do yourself.

  In my late 20’s I lost someone. We were together for years until that fateful day, which happened to be my birthday. Just like that, she was gone. When…

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  Review by Patrick Willems ★★★½ 12

  Hollywood in the 80s really fucked up by not putting Karen Allen in every movie

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  Review by Joshua Dysart ★★★★½ 19

  So I’m here with mom, helping her out after the loss of her partner, going through photos and documents and organizing the memorial, and she tells me a friend of hers has recommended a movie that might help her process her grief. Something called Starman.

  I go apeshit with excitement. What magical friend told my seventy year old mother to watch Starman? I tell mom how much I loved that movie when I was a kid. How it played on HBO over and over again in the era when HBO meant “Hey, Beastmaster’s on!” (My Golden Age of HBO)

  I explained how the movie was important to me because it was a very personal, early example, possibly my earliest, of…

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 4

  85

  "Tell me again how to say goodbye."

  As a road movie and a cozy sci-fi picture, Starman is exceptional, but it shines as a film about grief and its lasting effects. John Carpenter allows for plenty of mood and intrigue, although the grandeur of the film is rooted in a gentleness and distinct lack of cynicism. We treasure the waking movements of a once-dead deer, and the first taste of apple pie. It mght also offer the greatest final shot of Carpenter's career. You're floating by the end of it.

  
  

  
  

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  Review by Jamelle Bouie ★★★★ 2

  A gentle film about grief, loss, decency and human (or not-so-human) kindness. Something I kind of needed, to be honest. Jeff Bridges is terrific as a physical actor, and Karen Allen absolutely kills it in a wonderful, nuanced performance.

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★★½ 1

  "Shall I tell you what I find beautiful about you?"

  i wasn't entirely kidding when i called this Carpenter's BALL OF FIRE.

  it's also THE TERMINATOR but nice. (released two months apart)

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★ 6

  A very strange and sudden burst of pop commercial sweetness for Carpenter, presumably a response to the unjust failure of The Thing but one that proved no less artistically fruitful for him as he gets to take elements from old-fashioned Hollywood films he loves (romantic comedies, road movies, westerns, etc) and put a tender, grandiose post-Spielberg alien contact science-fiction spin on them. Bridges is obviously doing some spectacular proto-Dougie Jones physical acting and mugging as the alien wearing the widow's hot dead husband as a skinsuit (all the way to an Oscar nomination, no less) but Allen has the more challenging and rewarding task of watching this absurd premise with wide-eyed terror and a gentle, broken heart that slowly warms…

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  Review by nathaxnne [hiatus: blast injury] ★★★★★ 6

  'Starman' is a revenant story, a ghost story, a story born out of grief and loss, and the reintegration of what was lost back into a life made new and strange. It is a story about Stockholm Syndrome pre-loaded. 'Starman' is a noir posing as a romance posing as a sci-fi film. It is the story of the outlaw on the lam from the authorities who hides in the home of the grieving widow and takes her on the road with him in her car to safety (across the county/state/country/planetary line). In this story, the grieving widow tends to (righfully) fear the (misunderstood) outlaw who generally points a gun at her after she points a gun at him until they…

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  Review by christian d ★★★½ 5

  John Carpenter's romantic version of E.T.: The Extraterrestrial is weird, eerie yet very touching. It blows my fucking mind that Karen Allen never pursued leading actress/movie star status because she's absolutely magnetic in this. she's IN-CRED-I-BLE! Bridges is operating on all cylinders here as well, with his bird-like mannerisms and otherworldly behaviour. I absolutely love that he was Oscar nominated for this and i find it incredibly sad that performances like this don't really get nominated anymore. Like McAvoy in Split, Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler and Franco in Spring Breakers, there's not enough recognition from the Academy for these dedicated and gonzo performances these days. Starman is a great movie but major warning for that "baby ---> man" transformation sequence, it's fucking nightmare fuel.

  👧👶➡️👦👽🔫👨‍🔬🚗🚓🛸

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  Review by Logan Kenny ★★★★★ 1

  possibly my favourite carpenter to date, exceptionally profound and heartbreaking, it's the type of film that understands what it means to be human, the beauty in the strength, the variety, the connections and passions, the idiosyncrasies that make each of us unique. but mostly it understands the power of love, how seeing the face of the man you loved in person again, not just in a clip or in a photo can make the pain of the loss fade just a little bit. how as he develops as a person, he gains not just disconnected and apathetic knowledge about our species but the passion and warmth and humanity that is present throughout the best of us. but it's about how…

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  Review by sydney ★★★★½ 1

  i was a total mess from the moment this started. if i so much as see a picture of that voyager record i start to cry, and this whole movie is so emotional that i never got a chance to stop. it surprised me at first that Carpenter made such a touching movie, but then i thought of THE THING and remembered what a master emotional manipulator he is. ending on a shot of Karen Allen's face instead of the sky was an incredible choice. Karen Allen was an incredible choice. i took off half a star because this is so good but i don't know if or when i could handle going through watching it again. this lil review sucks but i don't know what else to write because you can't type out the sound of weeping, and analyzing how or why it works would be silly for me to do.

  related: www.radiolab.org/story/91520-space/

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  Review by Leighton Trent ★★★★ 12

  In honor of John Carpenter's 75th Birthday 🎂

  Revisiting one of my wife's favorite films for JC's birthday and I had forgotten just how damn good it is! So much credit is given to Carpenter for his hard edged material all across his career, which is what makes this film such an anomaly - a deft blend of sci-fi and romance that is mind-bogglingly good in just how quiet and tender it is.

  Every film of Carpenter's is a favorite of mine because, with each film he shows a distinct style and handle of the story and this one is no different with the tangible sadness of its narrative eventually swallowing you up whole in a flood of tears.

  
  **Also, Oscar or not, Jeff Bridges has never ever been better than he is here.