journal features

movie review - Taxi Blues

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 1997.03.16

This is a depressing Russian film which won raves at the Cannes film festival, but is just to grim and pointless to get into. The main character is a solid working man hero who drives a cab. His friend and project is an alcoholic Jewish saxaphone player. The cab driver first takes an interest in the musician when the latter ducks his fare. RThey become friends. Later, after having been straightened out by the cabbie, the musician finds himself in a world well beyond the cabbie, and they part.

The most interesting part of this movie is the backdrop, which is Moscow during the early years of the Soviet breakup. Things are violent and discordant, with corruption, poverty, and despair everywhere.

Recommended. For those with a strong constitution.

rand()m quote

If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

—Roald Dahl