The movie begins like a blind date. Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané), a Senegalese cab driver with aspirations of being a flight attendant, has picked up William (Red West), an old, white man who offers Solo a thousand dollars, cash, if he'll pick William up in 10 days and drive him to Blowing Rock National Park, where legend has it that the wind causes the snow to fall upwards and makes sticks thrown from the cliff fly back to the thrower's hand. There will be no return fare.
Solo takes William's deposit payment, but wants to know why he wants to go out to Blowing Rock. William doesn't want to tell him, but Solo is a persistent cab driver, and after getting some sad, wear-beaten looks from his fare, jumps to the worst possible conclusion. This is an awkward conversation, it feels awkward watching it happen on screen, and it only gets worse when Solo tries to goad something, anything out of William, who only wants to go to the movies. As he gets out of the cab in front of the theater, William is handed Solo's cell phone number. "You're a preferred client," Solo says, all smiles.
And so he is. Whenever William needs to go anywhere, which is usually to the movies and back to his apartment, Solo is the one to drive him. Always smiling, always chattering, Solo puts his cabbie charm through the paces in trying to crack William's armor, and slowly, he does. Eventually, William meets Solo's wife, ex-wife, step-daughter, and friends. He comes to know Solo's hopes for the future. He winds up living with Solo. He says he doesn't give a damn about Solo's personal life and requests some privacy when it comes to his, but over the course of 10 days, Solo and William wind up being like family.
If the 10 day span seems fast for such a relationship to develop, consider that William is an old man with no family, and that Solo is an immigrant who has a small family and a number of connections, but no true friends. Solo explains to William that in Senegal, the old are taken care of by their family. Seeing an old man with no family, Solo takes pity on William and tries to include him in his own.
The movie could have taken on a sappy, sentimental tone, but Rahmin Bahrani, who directed, co-wrote, produced, and edited his film, avoids that trap by focusing on real characters at the margins of society. There is no swelling music as the two men give each other significant looks in the rearview mirror of Solo's taxi. William's behavior doesn't change as the 10th day approaches. There is no scene where the old man breaks down and cries, because Bahrani understands that many old men are too tough and too foolish to shed a tear, even if their own particularly sad nature warrants a bit of self-pity. William's stubbornness only spurs Solo to continue seeking the truth behind why his friend wants to go out to Blowing Rock, but he remains a puzzle.
This is a tough, uncompromising film about people, no descriptive adjectives of phrases necessary. Bahrani, who grew up in Winston-Salem, where the film takes place, shows us places and people that many would avoid. He gives us a movie about those people and why they end up in those places. He filters nothing, even to the point of shooting scenes in natural sunlight, allowing the sun to wash out Solo's surroundings.
I liked every aspect of this film. How it starts uncertain and queasy and dark, how it opens up in the middle with a bit of charm and humor, how it lets the plot cook in the background so that the characters can take over. Souleymane Sy Savane and Red West are tremendous in their roles, so much so that they don't seem like actors playing a role in a movie, but people trying to figure out their role in life. This movie hits, and it hits hard
If this movie makes its way to your city during its slow trickle through the U.S., go see it. Otherwise, this kind of thing is the reason Netflix was invented.
The Dude Abides
0 comments:
Post a Comment