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.…

I loved everything about Starman, from the beautiful theme composed by Jack Nitzsche to the inclusion of The Voyager Golden Record, the Saturn-like appearance of the spaceship, the special effects, Karen Allen! Jeff Bridges! Charles Martin Smith! John Carpenter going full helicopter enthusiast!

This was probably the first time I have been emotionally moved by a John Carpenter film (yes, I cried...a couple of times...), but I also laughed, became tense during climatic scenes despite knowing things were going to turn out okay, but that's great filmmaking, isn't it? The ability to take a rather predictable, formulaic [albeit solid] script and turn it into cinematic gold. J♥hn Carpenter, how I love you and your craft.

If I'm being completely honest,…

'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…

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

I never notice Starman on any John Carpenter "best of" lists but it surely deserves to be on at least a few. Not only is it a great film but it showcases Carpenter's talent as a director in a different light then what his fans are accustomed too. Even though the film is most assuredly science-fiction, it's still Carpenter's biggest attempt at real drama and it succeeds in spades.

Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon's script was in limbo for a few years because the studio thought it was too similar to E.T.. Dean Riesner attempted to rewrite the script while working with…

I can't believe how hot this movie is. It's also got the sexiest man acting like a nonsense child I've ever seen.

It takes a lot for me to say this--The Last Picture Show would make my top ten, and The Big Lebowski is another epitome of what I consider a perfect performance--but this contends as Jeff Bridges' finest acting ever. I'm a sucker for clueless character's mimicry taking on a logic of its own (which reminded me of a mix of Being There and John from Cincinnati), but he mines so, so unprecedently much out of it, a performance even more trenchantly original than Chauncey Gardner.

Karen Allen is as much his equal as a co-star of someone as…