"Goodbye Solo"

By David Hudson on 03/26/2009

[Updated through 3/30]

"Ramin Bahrani is the new great American director." Roger Ebert argues the case.

"Bahrani's two previous films, the excellent 'Man Push Cart' (2005) and 'Chop Shop' (2007), were tightly wound, location-specific character studies, heavily influenced by the work of the Dardenne brothers," writes Scott Foundas in the Voice, "but with their own unfettered eye for immigrant workers living hand-to-mouth on the margins of New York City society. With 'Goodbye Solo,' Bahrani broadens his focus - or at least shifts it south - to his hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His fundamental interest, however, remains unseen people, or people we might see and never think twice about: the push-cart vendor who sells us our morning coffee; the motherless youth handing out estimates at a Queens body shop; an old man who wishes to die without leaving so much as a trace."

"Though Bahrani is working within the same budgetary constraints and has once again avoided populating his film with big names and familiar faces, he tells this story with such profound simplicity and graceful humanity - not to mention tender, uplifting humor - that it would be a genuine surprise (and disappointment) if 'Goodbye Solo' didn't introduce him to a much wider audience." Michael Tully at Hammer to Nail. "This is a very special film."

"I expected of 'Goodbye Solo' a familiarly warm humanism built from credible performances given by (generally) non-actors, an unfussy naturalism (neo-neorealism as some have dubbed it), and a window into lives lived in plain view, but completely out of sight," writes Jeff Reichert at indieWIRE. "It didn't disappoint.... Even if the body of the film touches on the rote, Bahrani's windswept finale is cinema of the truest sort."

"[M]ore than Abbas Kiarostami's 'A Taste of Cherry,' with which it shares a similar narrative hook, his third feature's true kindred spirit turns out to be 'Happy-Go-Lucky,'" suggests Nick Schager in Slant. ""As with Mike Leigh's effervescent portrait of positivity, Bahrani's film focuses on a dogged optimist, in this case a Senegalese cab driver in Winston Salem, NC named Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané) whose working-class life takes an unexpected turn when grizzled old Caucasian passenger William (Red West) offers him a proposition: for $1,000, he wants to be driven to nearby Blowing Rock mountains on the morning of October 20th.... Bahrani's film proves his most consistently assured and moving to date, blending docu-drama starkness with a poeticism that never topples into pretension."

"What makes Solo such a terrific screen concoction is that while he's, shall we say, magical, he is not, to put it another way, Magical," writes IFC guest critic Glenn Kenny. "The performances here are of the type that critics like to call miraculous. Savane's easy smile finds a fascinating counterpart with his deep, searching, entirely serious eyes. And West, a former Elvis bodyguard (he can be seen on the peripheries of 'Viva Las Vegas,' 'Kid Galahad' and nearly a dozen other lesser vehicles of the King) and stalwart character player, doesn't show an actorly or sentimental bone in his portrayal of William. No, he is that crusty old bastard at the far end of the bar."

"The black man who represents the life force, who tries to revive the white person's spirit, could be so 'Driving Miss Daisy,' so 'Bagger Vance,'" writes David Edelstein in New York. "It isn't: The abyss is always visible. Red West's eyes have bags under bags, yet they're almost lidless, huge, and liquid. Those eyes let us in--while his harsh demeanor shuts us out. Like his protagonist, Bahrani never gives up on William; his camera never stops probing. He loves West's face, and he honors its mystery."

"[I]n an indie world too long dominated by navel-gazers, Bahrani's work has become an important corrective," writes Scott Tobias at the AV Club.

"Bahrani dispenses with American indies' familiar emotional cues," notes Benjamin H Sutton in the L Magazine. "Like these characters who prize mobility above all else, Bahrani's films ask viewers to meet them halfway. And once again, the journey is completely rewarding."

"Easy symmetries and tearful breakdowns are not his thing," writes Joshua Rothkopf in Time Out New York. "The movie flirts with a dark idea: Maybe this taxi driver is exactly the wrong savior. Then again, saviors are figments of fiction; 'Goodbye Solo' feels cut from stronger stuff."

"'Goodbye Solo' feels lived-in rather than forced upon us," writes Mark Asch for Stop Smiling. "Bahrani, who is his own editor, and regular DP Michael Simmonds have a sad, solitary, streetlamp-lit feel for night-shift rhythms. They carve a contemplative space out of menial labor; Bahrani's eloquence is in deeds rather than words."

This is Bahrani's "best film so far... giving us a fuller emotional experience, a deeper study of character and more technically proficient moviemaking," writes James van Maanen, who notes: "Roadside Attractions is opening 'Goodbye Solo' on Friday, March 27 at NYC's Angelika Film Center, with a limited-release, national rollout to follow."

Interviews with Bahrani: Noralil Ryan Fores (SpoutBlog) and Michael Tully (Hammer to Nail). And for video: FilmCatcher.

Earlier: Reviews from Venice and Toronto.

Updates, 3/27: "A film of great intelligence and quiet assurance, 'Goodbye Solo' exhilarates without ever trafficking in easy uplift," writes Dana Stevens in Slate. It's "as far as you can get from a tale of humanist redemption, but it's kept buoyant by Savané's embodiment of that rarest of things, a good (but not simple) man."

"Solo, a fairly new arrival in a strange land, is working his way up and in, toward the bright promise not only of material comfort but also of belonging," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. "William is in flight, seeking the outer edge of experience and the oblivion that lies beyond it. What each one takes from the other is not spelled out and does not need to be. Because grace is also what defines Mr Bahrani's filmmaking. I can't think of anything else to call the quality of exquisite attention, wry humor and wide-awake intelligence that informs every frame of this almost perfect film."

"What sets Bahrani apart from some of the other directors in Scott's neo-neo-realist pantheon, such as Lance Hammer ('Ballast') and Kelly Reichardt ('Wendy and Lucy,' 'Old Joy'), is that he can put miserable people on the screen and generate something from their presence that's richer and more complicated than mere pathos or the warm feeling some moviegoers get from feeling sorry for poor people," writes Phil Nugent at Screengrab.

In a similar vein - even though she disagrees - Karina Longworth at the SpoutBlog: "Neo-neorealism is not a trend destined to be consumed by many people who will see their own lives onscreen. The films thus function, in a way, as travelogues to Poorsville, to be consumed almost chiefly by folks for whom the experiences depicted are totally foreign."

More interviews with Bahrani: Lane Brown (Vulture) and Michael Joshua Rowin (Reverse Shot).

Online listening tip. Bahrani again, this time with Aaron Hillis at GreenCine Daily.

Update, 3/28: S James Snyder for Artforum on Bahrani: "There's a claustrophobic feel to his approach, an airtight quality that initially suggests his films are about hopeless figures in intractable situations. Yet, whether it's a food cart operator saving money to buy his own cart, a child in a chop shop who dreams of a brighter future, or a cab driver struggling to love a man who refuses to love himself, Bahrani is an unswerving advocate for can-do spirits. He's inspired by the struggle, not the victory, and one can easily envision an elderly Solo, still reaching out to anyone in need of a lift."

Update, 3/30: "Combining the sharp observations and skillful elisions of his earlier features with a newfound interest in character, the young director has crafted his first successful film, one that finds two wholly credible human beings struggling with, but not subdued by, a set of specifically dictated circumstances." Andrew Schenker: "The men may take opposing actions when faced with their separate trials, but, in Bahrani's latest effort, their choices are, at last, their own."

[Photo: "Goodbye Solo," Roadside Attractions, 2008]

Tags: Goodbye Solo, Ramin Bahrani, Red West, Souléymane Sy Savané