Lisbon Story (1995)

Part travelogue, part meditation on the future of cinema, part recruiting film for boom mike operators, Lisbon Story, Wim Wenders' umpteenth road movie, is an infuriating mix of the poetic and the pretentious. (No, they aren't necessarily synonomous.) When nothing much is going on — when Vogler's soundman is just wandering around the Portuguese capital recording random buzzings and gurglings, or dreamily listening to a folk band play a paean to a nearby river — it's a low-key delight. But when, toward the end, the characters start delivering their dissertations, take my advice: Bail. C+