Review of Stardust Memories (1980) by Steven S — 20 Jul 2012

Allen says to his starry-eyed lover in the shadow of a box car: "You're seductive and beautiful, but there's kind of a lost quality." I think that quote could easily be applied to each and every cinematic outing by this filmmaker, and it's an absolute marvel to behold.

While Allen's characters often read like literary conceits, and the cleverness of their discourse can often exhaust you, they are accompanied by wry, human observations about 'big ticket items' like love, death, purpose, and what it all means.

While Woody never fully answers these questions, the nuance he possesses in his search for them is more than enough to justify how middling much of it is, because in the end there is art in the pondering.