Five cities. Five taxicabs. A multitude of strangers in the night. Jim Jarmusch assembled an extraordinary international cast of actors for this amusing quintet of tales of urban displacement and existential angst, spanning time zones, continents, and languages. In Los Angeles, casting agent Gena Rowlands goes for a ride with Winona Ryder’s chainsmoking cabbie and decides she ought to be in pictures. In New York, Yoyo (Giancarlo Esposito) makes fun of his German driver’s name, Helmut (Armin Mueller-Stahl). And so on. Jarmusch’s lovingly askew view of humanity from the passenger seat makes for one of his most charming and beloved films. Tom Waits composed and performs the score.
At the end, we have learned no great lessons and arrived at no thrilling conclusions, but we have shared the community of the night, when people are unbuttoned and vulnerable – more ready to speak about what’s really on their minds.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
By the time Tom Waits growls his lovely closing waltz over the credits, Jarmusch has shown us moments most filmmakers don’t even notice.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Jim Jarmusch
Gena Rowlands, Winona Ryder, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Beatrice Dalle, Roberto Benigni, Giancarlo Esposito
USA
1991
English
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Screenwriter
Jim Jarmusch
Cinematography
Frederick Elmes
Editor
Jay Rabinowitz
Original Music
Tom Waits
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The last movie Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes made together is an eccentrically beautiful, painful piece about a writer (Cassavetes) broken out of his self-imposed exile by the arrival of a son he doesn't know, and a sister he hasn't seen in years.
