Highlights:
- Beautiful cinematography. Very artistic, and had me seeing everyday images (e.g. out car windows) in a different way.
- Touching, unaffected performances from Rüdiger Vogler and Yella Rottländer, the 9-year-old girl he is improbably left in custody of.
- There is something existential about the wanderings of the main character, first across America while trying to write a story, followed by searching for the girl's grandmother, and indeed, he's in a pretty absurd situation.
- This line: "The inhuman thing about American TV is not so much that they hack everything up with commercials, though that's bad enough, but in the end all programs become commercials. Commercials for the status quo. Every image radiates the same disgusting and nauseated message. A kind of boastful contempt. Not one image leaves you in peace, they all want something from you."
- The suspension railway in Wuppertal, Germany.
- Strong, unforced ending. In general, there is such a pleasant gentleness to this film, even though it's touching on longing and loneliness.
- Wim Wenders was clearly influential - in tone, this film felt a lot like Jim Jarmusch's 'Stranger Than Paradise', which would appear a decade later.