Other reviewers have said many true things about this beautiful film already, so no need to rehash the praise for director and actors.
But one thing that doesn't get mentioned often - and which pleases me as a SciFi buff - is that this is one of the very few productions which approach the first contact theme in a really mature manner. It's less far-fetched than any other first contact movie I know, and it takes its protagonists serious as individual characters. It never degrades into an action-movie despite some large-scale military sets, it stays focused on why the contact is taking place and how the proceedings affect the protagonists.
As a contact movie, Starman is kilometers above E.T. or Close Encounters, it is meters above The Man Who Fell to Earth, it is slightly better than Contact, and I also like it better than the (equally mature) Arrival.
Among Carpenter's works, I would call this his "quiet" movie (like A Straight Story is Lynch's) - and nearly my favourite of his, with the exception of The Thing (which I DON'T count as a first contact movie, even though it technically might be called one) and Big Trouble in Little China, which is maybe not as mature but so much fun I prefer it to Starman 9 out of 10 times.
But one thing that doesn't get mentioned often - and which pleases me as a SciFi buff - is that this is one of the very few productions which approach the first contact theme in a really mature manner. It's less far-fetched than any other first contact movie I know, and it takes its protagonists serious as individual characters. It never degrades into an action-movie despite some large-scale military sets, it stays focused on why the contact is taking place and how the proceedings affect the protagonists.
As a contact movie, Starman is kilometers above E.T. or Close Encounters, it is meters above The Man Who Fell to Earth, it is slightly better than Contact, and I also like it better than the (equally mature) Arrival.
Among Carpenter's works, I would call this his "quiet" movie (like A Straight Story is Lynch's) - and nearly my favourite of his, with the exception of The Thing (which I DON'T count as a first contact movie, even though it technically might be called one) and Big Trouble in Little China, which is maybe not as mature but so much fun I prefer it to Starman 9 out of 10 times.