Goodbye Solo
A Senegalese taxi driver living in Winston-Salem, NC, makes the decision to befriend a depressive passenger with a tragic plan in director Ramin Bahrani's deeply humanistic drama. Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané) is a cab driver who believes that everyone should be engaged and concerned with one another, and thus lacks the self-conscious view of relationships so prevalent in North American society. When a 70-year-old passenger named William (Red West) hails Solo's cab and he books him for another ride in two weeks during the course of the ride, it quickly becomes apparent during their negotiation that the man isn't planning to return from his impending trip. Troubled at the thought of what his passenger has planned, Solo does his best to strike up a friendship and convince William to reconsider. But William harbors a pain more deep-rooted than Solo first senses, displaying a visible desire for privacy that immediately puts him at odds with the genuinely concerned cab driver. more..
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Starring: Red West, Souleymane Sy Savane, Diana Franco Galindo, Carmen Leyva
Grace is also what defines Mr. Bahrani's filmmaking. I can't think of anything else to call the quality of exquisite attention, wry humor and wide-awake intelligence that informs every frame of this almost perfect film.
Wherever you live, when this film opens, it will be the best film in town.
Goodbye Solo is visually simple and stunning, especially the haunting nightscapes of Solo's perambulations. But more important, Goodbye Solo is driven by deep feeling and sensitivity. Don't miss it.
Almost frighteningly alive.
It sounds like the old unstoppable-force-meets-immovable-object trick. Ramin Bahrani's Goodbye Solo has the trappings of such a story, but, mercifully, none of the follow-through.
Best Actor
Black Reel Awards (2010)
Best Overlooked Film
Central Ohio Film Critics Association (2010)
Souleymane Sy Savane
Gotham Awards (2009)
Best Male Lead
Independent Spirit Awards (2010)
Top Independent Films
National Board of Review (2009)
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