Film review: Goodbye Solo
“What are you going to do, jump off?” Solo asks jokingly to William‘s unusual request. Goodbye Solo, director Ramin Bahrani’s third feature film, begins with an intriguing conversation between taxi driver Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané), and his passenger, William (Red West). William offers Solo a large sum of money to take him to the remote mountaintop location of Blowing Rock. William’s purposes there are strictly his business, a fact he makes very apparent, but Solo’s conscience is troubled by his passenger’s unspoken plans. Another man may have probed William further, while another may have accepted his money no questions asked, but Solo decides to befriend his passenger with the hopes of discovering and maybe altering his plans.
Senegal-born but now residing in North Carolina, Solo the relentlessly optimist cab driver wears down William’s (and the audience’s) defiant resistance with his demonstrative teasing, addressing every male customer or colleague as “big dog” and engaging William in his favourite subject: big booty women. With a smile, he remains undaunted by Walter’s violent rejection of his attempts at friendship. Williams on the other hand, seems to bear a heavy burden.
From his cast of non-professional actors (with the exception of Mr. West, who has a long acting career), Bahrani is able to draw a richly detailed performance about daily routine, lived lives and unspoken truths that culminates in a final elegiac scene. And even though the storyline feels a bit contrived at times, Goodbye Solo is a very endearing movie, rich in meaning and melancholic.
Goodbye Solo is out from 9 Oct. See listings here
The film opens in the UK on Friday, October 9th in London then across the UK.
http://www.goodbyesolomovie.com
October 2009
9 – 15 Renoir Cinema LONDON
9 – 15 Odeon Panton St LONDON
16 – 22 Apollo Piccadilly LONDON
16 – 22 Glasgow Film Theatre GLASGOW
29 Trinity Theatre TUNBRIDGE WELLS
30 – 31 Filmhouse EDINBURGH
30 – 31 Chapter Cinema CARDIFF
November 2009
1 – 5 Filmhouse EDINBURGH
1 – 5 Chapter Cinema CARDIFF
6 – 12 Dundee Contemporary Arts DUNDEE
6 – 9 Pictureville BRADFORD
9 – 12 Showroom SHEFFIELD
13 – 19 Queen’s Film Theatre BELFAST
18 – 19 Roses Theatre TEWKESBURY
26 No. 8 Community Arts Centre PERSHORE
27 – 30 Broadway Cinema NOTTINGHAM