Rating: R
Genre:
Comedy
Theatrical Release: 05/01/1992(USA)
Release Date: 09/04/2007
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English/French/Italian/FI
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 128 Minutes
Flags: Not For Children, Adult Humor, Profanity, Substance Abuse (Alcohol, Drugs)
Distributor/Studio: Criterion
Jim Jarmusch's deadpan
comedy-of-the-night is a collection of five vignettes taking place in the enclosed space of a cab ride, each occurring simultaneously in five different cities and five different time zones -- Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. The Los Angeles episode takes place at dusk, as high-powered casting agent
Victoria (
Gena Rowlands) gets a ride from L.A. International Airport with tomboy driver
Corky (
Winona Ryder), who would rather go on driving her cab than take up
Victoria's offer to make her a superstar. In New York City, novice East German cabbie
Helmut Grokenberger (
Armin Mueller-Stahl) has difficulty working the foot pedals to his hack, and his passenger,
YoYo (
Giancarlo Esposito), ends up driving himself to Brooklyn, picking up the shrill-voiced
Angela (
Rosie Perez) along the way. In Paris, an African cab driver (
Isaach De Bankolé) ejects a collection of drunken African diplomats from his cab and picks up a beautiful but surly blind girl (
Béatrice Dalle). In Rome, cab driver
Gino (
Roberto Benigni) engages in a heartfelt monologue confessing his past sexual exploits to his passenger, a priest who is dying of a heart attack in the back seat. The film winds down in the last melancholy vignette, taking place in Helsinki, as taxi driver
Mika (
Matti Pellonpää) picks up three inebriated workmen who regale him with hard-luck stories. But
Mika has a much harsher story of his own to tell.
~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
