I'm really glad I got to see this! A Jim Jarmusch film from 1991 that had completely slipped under my radar. Looking at the credits it seems like it was funded/produced by a Japanese organisation.
The film is made up of 5 stories, in 5 different cities throughout the world. They are linked through an interlude scene which shows the 5 different time zones on clocks on the wall. The camera then zooms into the clock, through it to a map, to the city. The 5 cities are: Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. From the intro where we see the Earth in space, it almost looks as if we are an alien coming down to Earth for the night to witness the lives of 5 taxi drivers. Maybe it's an alien writing a PhD on Earth's taxi drivers...
The LA story kicks things off, and this was the ropiest of them all – Winona Ryder is the Tom Boy taxi driver, and who would guess it – she's also a babe who's about to unexpectedly get cast as a movie star by the female exec passenger she takes on. But the ending saves this part of the film, and then it just gets better. I loved all the characters, I loved the dialogue – and a lot of the film revolves around dialogue, but it never drags – and I loved the shots of the cities the cabbies drive through.
I can't decide which of the stories was my favourite, because I think they were all as strong as each other.
The film made me nostalgic for a time when storytelling and pace could be a bit slower. I think the shift to digital has made filmmakers rush too much. Everything is rushed now, there are no slow builds and we've lost a lot in the way of atmosphere from modern films.
Really enjoyed this. 8/10
