Goodbye Solo
Apr 29, 2009
(Ramin Bahrani, USA, 2008, 35mm, 91 min)
Ramin Bahrani’s (Man Push Cart, Chop Shop) third feature is a rewarding slice of independent filmmaking, with humanist portraits that continue to define him as one as the most distinctive and engaging young directors working in American film today.
Solo (first-time actor Souleymane Sy Savane) is an amiable Senegalese immigrant driving a taxi in North Carolina. One night a grumbling old-timer named William gets in his cab, and offers Solo a job that will prove to have enormous consequences in his own life. Goodbye Solo gradually reveals itself to be a perfectly judged, seemingly effortless story of understated style and craft that touches on what is truly important within our lives.