Rating: B
Dir: Jim Jarmusch
Star: Winona Ryder, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Béatrice Dalle, Roberto Benigni
[13] For a film in which, basically, nothing happens, this is surprisingly good. It’s a collection of five stories, set in different cities at the same time, all concerning taxi drivers and their passengers. Few have much plot development, most just peter out with no real conclusion. But they are effectively directed, evoking the spirit of the cities effectively, and they’re also well acted all round, with nary a duff performance. Definite highlight has to be a manic Benigni confessing his sins to an unwilling passenger-priest, just ahead of a cutely smudged Ryder, as her tale is a little too schmaltzy. Only real complaint is the repetitive approach – it might have been better to have a different director doing each story, maybe Abel Ferrara for New York, or Dario Argento for Rome?