I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Admirable film.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

This is a family reunion I want no part of in this Lifetime TV style my vie, released in theaters, and not welcome to darken my DVD player after this viewing. Sam Shepherd is a troubled western movie actor (they still exist?) who finds out from his aging mother (Eva Marie Saint) that he has a grown son in a small town where he once shot a movie. He ventures there where he finds an equally messed up son (Gabriel Mann) along with the beautiful woman (Jessica Lange) he basically forgot about after finishing up the film. Nice guy, aye? Real all American hero, this one, yet still able to find work, that is when he shows up sober to work. Unpleasant in every way, this is a story we've seen thousands of times, decently acted but soapy and unbelievable. I really didn't care about seeing a reunion between the two, and when it happens, the only one I felt any compassion for is the beautiful Lange. I don't believe that she'd stay single for long here, although with Mann, seeing his harpy mess of a floozy girlfriend would drive me to throw an entire apartment out of a window, too. Yes, people with emotionally empty lives exist, but their stories don't make appealing movies. A scene where Lange has to explain how hash browns are made is an insult to her talent.

Don't Come Knocking (2005)A disappointing attempt at gritty Western aura, movie insider savvy, and creative parallel plotting and editing. It has elements of camp, of post-modern drama (references to earlier movies or movie types), and even some genuine sincerity.There is a terrific George Kennedy, who is still active and very much making movies with his over-sized persona. There are smaller roles by several women, including a wan and frankly dull if pretty Sarah Polley. And mostly there is Sam Shepard being Sam Shepard, which is pretty good stuff. But he plays a famous actor who walks off a cheesy movie shoot into reality, and for the rest of the movie is walking as if in a dream through a reality he never quite knew existed.I think this looked great on paper. At least until someone read the script. It just doesn't hold water, partly for the simple fact that we couldn't care less about most of these folk. In particular, the movie makers, the directors and execs are playing meaningless roles that might mean something to insiders, but to the rest of us (I'm not an insider, thankfully), it's self-indulgent and, well, boring.What works best? Well, since the story pushes you out you look at the performances straight up, and some, like Shepard's, are strong (he reminds me of Woody Harrelson in this film, for some reason). There's the music (by T-Bone Burnett), an often used electric guitar sound with a country twang that is appealing and sometimes even evocative. And there is the filming, which is unadorned and very nice, depending on some amazing scenes, and the light and color in them. If there is ever an Oscar for scouting, for period sets that hype up the truth of a certain period, this is a good candidate. Certainly the light is romantically appealing.But I'm stretching to see the best in a plodding film that had potential and lost its velocity very early on. It has to be added that the director, Wim Wenders, has done some amazing work, and has his own following. But he might be trying to cash in on "Paris, Texas" which has its own small cult following, and which at least has a quirky and disturbing element to it. Here it is mostly a matter of wandering in the modern wilderness, and Wenders, I really believe, is not quite in touch with what makes America America. It feels cold and superficial. See his "Wings of Desire" for a masterpiece. Here? Have patience. Oh...and enjoy the scenery!

When people look back on the first decade of this century, this film will be seen to be one of the great films of that period. The partnership of Wim Wenders and Sam Shepard is simply unbeatable for creating major works of cinematic art. Shepard's bizarre ability to come up with deeply emotive but unique stories and characters, and Wender's unmatched cinematic genius generate hyper-classics. This is this decade's 'Paris, Texas', and is just as haunting, just as evocative, and rips our solar plexus out with the same relentless fury. Add to this the magnificent cinematography and, as usual, the wonderful music, and you have something in its own class, - the Wenders Class! The film is full of spectacular performances of such sensitivity and intensity that one wonders if human beings are really capable of feeling that much. Does this film flatter us into imagining that anything could ever really matter that much to us that we would behave as these people do? This film is all about feeling so deeply that the air is a mile above you. Sam Shepard dominates with a career-topping performance as Howard Spence, a hopelessly self-destructive cowboy movie star who finally starts thinking maybe other people exist after all. Jessica Lange gives one of the best and most versatile performances of her life as an old flame to whom he 'kind of returns' and insults by saying 20 years too late that they should have married. Gabriel Mann not only sings well, but gives a deeply moving performance as a troubled son left behind and cracking up. Fairuza Balk is superb as his wonderfully anarchic girl friend who bops on a broken sofa with the spontaneity of a puppy. As for Sarah Polley, in a way she makes the film. I wouldn't want to run into her on the street, because she might throw a Molotov cocktail at me, but as a gentle, wistful, thoughtful abandoned daughter she provides the sombre bass note to the whole orchestration, and her speech near the end mesmerises not only all the characters but us too, and rounds everything off sublimely. This is so beautifully orchestrated, it is better than Toscanini. And Eva Marie Saint! My God! There she is again after all these years! And she is wonderful as Sam Shepard's mother, who has learned to let it all flow by. She will gladly offer him orange juice and cookies and make up his bed with his high school pennants put up on the wall to welcome him, after a mere 20 years' absence, but she will not get too upset about him again, knowing he will be off tomorrow. A lesson in resignation! Tim Roth is so controlled, neurotic, and super-cool as a determined film guarantor trying to save 32.5 million dollars on a budget payout. One doesn't want him to succeed. Can't he leave poor old Howard alone? Can't the world leave Howard alone? Can't Howard have that cocktail he lusts after? But no, that's just what alcoholics can't have. Nor can they have the girls they left behind. But maybe they can find their children. Once again, the Wenders motif of the lost child whose recovery heals a loss, redemption by progeny. Is Wenders himself a waif? A little boy lost? Wherever it comes from, this elemental call of the blood, the miracle of the child, and the intervention (whether seen or unseen) of the angel, is the essence of Wenders and is what speaks to us, as the invisible closes in, miraculously revealed to us in the sense of place, in the great ear of the void into which we (and Tim Roth in this film) shout with futile desperation: 'Hello!' But the desert answers us in its own way, not in our voice, but in our fates. We are all on paths towards each other, away from each other, going somewhere, going nowhere, but going. The 'road movie' is that thing called Life. If we scream loud enough, eventually the reply comes in our strange destinies which are shaped by the cry.

While filming "The Phanton of the Desert" in the middle of nowhere in Moab, Utah City, the washed-out veteran actor Howard Spence (Sam Shepard) has an existential crisis and leaves the location riding a horse. Howard was a famous cowboy in western movies in the past, but is decadent due to his reckless and explosive behavior, abusive use of booze and drugs and scandalous affairs with many women. Howard gets some money, destroys his credit cards, rents a car and takes a bus later to Elko, his hometown in Nevada. He meets his mother, who tells him that he has a son. He drives to Butte, Montana, where he finds the former waitress Doreen (Jessica Lange), her son Earl (Gabriel Mann), the mysterious Sky (Sarah Polley) with the ghosts he left behind and the life that he could have had. Meanwhile, the production calls the insurance company that sends the investigator Sutter (Tim Roth) to chase him."Don't Come Knocking" is an original and sad story about existential and identity crisis of a man that reaches the third age with his career and personal life in a complete mess, totally disconnected from family and friends and maybe missing a different lifestyle with a family of his own. He decides to meet his past, but always chased by his troubled present with younger women and alcohol. The direction of Wim Wenders is effective as usual, supported by engaging story, screenplay and dialogs in partnership with the lead actor Sam Shepard. The acting is top-notch, and the locations especially in the beginning and in the casino have magnificent cinematography. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Estrela Solitária" ("Lonely Star")