Precious is a new-style weepie but one that is much more bracing than depressing
Precious
Theatre
Ian McKellen is captivating throughout. He delights in the play’s gallows humour, yet is also maudlin and poignant
Waiting for Godot
Theatre
Slight quibbles notwithstanding, this will set the West End’s stock riding high
Enron
Utterly, utterly brilliant. You really are in for a treat
Though 'Trilogy' has won rave reviews, I personally found myself exasperated after about an hour
We went on a quiet sunday evening and the food was excellent, but the experience let down by the service and ambiance
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Ramin Bahrani.
Cast: Souleymane Sy Savane, Red West, Diana Franco Galindo
Description: Senegalese immigrant Solo now lives in New York City where he works incredibly long hours behind the wheel of a cab. With his cheery demeanour, he soon puts the men and women in the back seat at ease, not least Southern gent William, who offers Solo a large sum of money to take him to a place in the mountains called Blowing Rock. With a long drive ahead of them, Solo engages William in conversation and he soon learns of his passenger's intentions when they arrive.
Country: US. 2008. 91mins
All three of American-Iranian director Ramin Bahrani’s films have won festival prizes, possibly because their simplicity and directness refreshes the parts Hollywood can’t generally reach.
This winner of the International Critics’ Prize at Venice has Souleymane Sy Savane as Solo, a Senegalese taxi driver in North Carolina. He is promised $1,000 by a depressed 70-year-old man (Red West) to take him in two weeks’ time to Blowing Rock, the peak of a jagged mountain. He senses the veteran will end his life there.
Solo is concerned and tries to befriend the old curmudgeon. He takes him with him on taxi rides and introduces him to his Mexican wife (Carmen Leyva) and nine-year-old stepdaughter (Diana Franco Galindo).
Working to a spare screenplay, Bahrani offers none of the usual clues about either the cabbie’s surprising determination to prevent the tragedy or the old man’s reasons for suicide. This doesn’t always help the quiet drama. What does is the way Bahrani and his cinematographer Michael Simmonds paint the urban scene and the artless performances of the cast.
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Morning:
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