Goodbye Solo poster & wallpaper

Diana Franco Galindo, Lane 'Roc' Williams, Mamadou Lam

Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané) is a cheerful 34-year-old taxi driver from Senegal hoping for a better life in America. But when the hard-edged William (Red West), a 70-year-old white Southerner, enters S...( read more  read more... )olo’s cab with an unusual request, this odd couple embarks on a journey that will change them both forever.

From acclaimed director Ramin Bahrani comes a powerful story of friendship and forgiveness. With Goodbye Solo, Bahrani has created a profoundly uplifting story about an unlikely friendship between two very different men that has been entrancing critics since its debut. The film was declared “powerful, riveting, inspiring” (Los Angeles Times); “touching and uplifting” (New York Post) and “an almost perfect film” (The New York Times)

In addition, Goodbye Solo has touched the lives of audiences across the country winning the International Critics Prize at the 2008 Venice Film Festival and becoming an Official Selection at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. The film was directed by Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop), a recipient of the 2008 Independent Spirit Award’s “Someone to Watch” prize and who Roger Ebert called “the new great American director.”

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R, 1 hr. 31 min.

Directed by: Ramin Bahrani

Release Date: March 27, 2009

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DVD Release Date: August 25, 2009

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Flixster Reviews (192)

  • her69eyes
    June 13, 2009
    her69eyes
    "Goodbye Solo", the third feature from Iranian-American director Ramin Bahrani, is perhaps the most unusual of his works. The plot seems like a simple buddy movie where the conversationalist makes the reserved fellow open up a bit, but in it's final moments you'll realize that it...( read more)'s far from that tired formula. It's not about these obscure "buddies", it's about human nature. There are happy people and there are sad people. Bahrani shows us how each of them lives, and how each of them thinks. Nothing seems calculated in an effort to move the plot along. There are good films that, once you leave the theater, you never think of again, and then there are great movies that keep you up at night because you're trying to uncover what the director is trying to say. This, of course, is a great movie.

    Like his previous films, Bahrani has selected newcomer, Souleymane Sy Savane, to play his title character. He plays Solo - a kindred spirit of Poppy in Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky", with a relentless smile and cheer. He's a taxi driver from Senegal whose married to a Mexican woman. She has a daughter, Alex (Diana Franco Galindo), whom he loves as if she was his own. In an effort to support his family more thoroughly, he's taking an exam to become a flight attendant. He memorizes things like the six steps one must take in case of a water landing.

    One night, a quiet old man enters his cab. He tells Solo that he'll pay him a hefty sum of money to take him to Blowing Rock, the one place in the world where it's so windy that it snows up. He says nothing of a return trip. Solo jokingly asks if he's planning on jumping. The old man doesn't respond.

    This old man is William (Red West). Mr. West is a long-time film veteran, which is strange for Bahrani, but he's never been a leading man. Interestingly enough, West also was a member of the "Memphis Mafia" - he grew up with Elvis Presley and even became his bodyguard and driver. His performance is heartfelt, and his blossoming friendship with Solo is one of the most natural grumpy-to-cheerful transitions i've seen in film.

    After Solo hears William's request, he brings it upon himself to be William's designated driver. He takes him to the theater regularly, and, when William plans on staying at a hotel, Solo lets him sleep in his house. William has no interest in Solo's curiosities, and complains "how come I always get you?" William's apparent looming suicide attempt is never discussed in dialogue, but rather by Solo counting down the days until William's trip to Blowing Rock.

    "Goodbye Solo" is a hard film. Like all of Bahrani's film, it's a pure slice of life - he gives us an intimate look at immigrant working-class men and women and reveals how they make their living. Those expecting a quirky buddy movie will get something they didn't expect, and even the most sophisticated movie-goers will be left scratching their heads when they see how everything turns out. But this, of course, is the sign of a wonderful movie. It's one to discuss with friends and one that demands frequent revisits. Although I favor "Chop Shop", ranking Bahrani's three efforts it's worthless - each film is a magnificent accomplishment that succeeds in very different ways. "Goodbye Solo" is simply on par with Bahrani's earlier works, which is certainly a great praise.
  • Dracula787
    October 31, 2009
    Dracula787
    You may have never heard of Ramin Bahrani, but his films are among the most important movies coming out of the United States today. Bahrani has made three films now and while none of them have come close to penetrating the mainstream, all of them have an aura of something new an...( read more)d special. His distinct style clearly owes a lot to the Italian Neo-Realist movement (some have glibly called his style neo-neo-realism), as each film depicts a character struggling to survive in poverty and he extensively uses non actors in order to make everything as authentic as possible. I discovered his first film, Man Push Cart, on the Sundance Channel and was immediately transfixed by the travails of the central character as he tried desperately to make ends meet on the streets of New York. His follow up, Chop Shop, also depicted a side of the big apple which has heretofore gone unnoticed by the general public and the world seemed all the more tragic because it was a child placed at the center of the film. My opinion of both of these films has only grown upon reflection and I was certainly excited to see what Bahrani would show us next. His newest film, Goodbye Solo, shifts locations from New York to North Carolina but this does nothing to diminish the newest fascinating slice of life from this important filmmaker.

    The film opens in a taxi cab driven by Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané), a Senegalese immigrant with a young family who aspires to become a flight attendant and leave behind his cab. In the back seat of the car is William (Red West), a grumpy old man who?s become very depressed and disillusioned as of late. William has made a proposition to Solo, in a few weeks he wants to be driven out to an area landmark called the Blowing Rock, he doesn?t want a return trip. Solo asks if William plans to jump off this rock but receives no answer. After Solo accepts a hundred dollar deposit for this grim task he decides to try befriending William in hopes of eventually dissuading him from his suicidal plans, but William may be beyond saving at this point.

    While Bahrani?s first two films were squarely focused on a single character, this one focuses on a pair of them. Solo, like the immigrants in the first two films, is trying to slowly build a life for himself through tedious day to day work. Unlike the other two, he?s got a family of sort including a step daughter. The other major character is William, who?s played by veteran bit player Red West, though if this were a mainstream film he probably would have been played by someone like Nick Nolte. He?s a gruff old man who doesn?t speak a lot and who isn?t willing to wear his heart on his sleeve. William always resists Solo?s attempts to help him, but one gets a sense of growing respect between the two. This relationship could have easily turned into a saccharine weep-fest were the story placed in the wrong hands, but Bahrani does a very careful tightrope walk and makes the story real rather than contrived.

    A big part of the appeal in Bahrani?s films is the way they let you eavesdrop into the lives of people you normally don?t have contact with. Chop Shop was particularly good at this; it was set in the middle of Queens but felt like it was set in a foreign country. Goodbye Solo does not maintain this same sense of foreignness, but it does feel like it?s peaking into a part of the country that isn?t always fun to think about. Bahrani has never ended on an overwhelmingly unhappy note, and each one of them has been more hopeful than the last. The ending of Goodbye Solo is particularly strong in the way it manages to balance hope and melancholy through a few well chosen images.

    Writing this, I consistently find myself referring back to Bahrani?s previous work and comparing. Such is the nature of the man?s oeuvre, in a particularly auteurist way he?s managed to make statements in individual films that are magnified by their place in a larger body of work. These are some of the best films about the American immigrant experience that I?ve ever seen and in bringing the techniques of Italian neo-realism into the 21st century, Bahrani has crafted a unique style that has only improved over the course of three films. I?m dying to know where Bahrani goes from here, until then we have a trilogy of excellent films to admire.
  • mvieaddict
    October 17, 2009
    mvieaddict
    Image and video hosting by TinyPic
    Goodbye Solo was a marvelous movie directed by a Persian American director Ramin Bahrani. The story of a cab driver, named Solo play...( read more)ed by Souleyman Sy Savane. One night he picked up a passenger named William,who asked him to drive him to a secret place on a specific date. William was a bitter man who just wants to be left alone. All he wanted was to be dropped off the cinema every night, and talk to the young man at the ticket sales. Solo wanted to help William in so many ways, trying to make a friendship with this man who has been beaten by life. That was the purpose of the movie, they had nothing in common except the fact that both of them had some rough times in their lives. This movie was sweet, sometimes humorous and very enjoyable to watch.This is one movie you should not miss.
  • TobiasXimenez
    August 12, 2009
    TobiasXimenez
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  • swimbikebeer
    November 23, 2009
    swimbikebeer
    cab driver trying to better himself who becomes a friend to a man who has distance from his family u have to rent it to find out the sad ending
  • filmguy450
    November 22, 2009
    filmguy450
    Powerful acting, beautiful shots, moving score. A pretty much perfect movie!
  • divinetrash
    November 12, 2009
    divinetrash
    I knew next to nothing about this movie before watching it and was completely surprised at how much it moved me. Both main characters are loneliness personified and it's very touching and intriguing to see how their paths cross. It has a very genuine humanity to it.
  • yarbroughs
    November 6, 2009
    yarbroughs
    A beautiful film. Understated, humanistic, wonderful story. The characters are as close to real living breathing people as characters get. This is not an easy film to watch, but I found it paradoxically uplifting.
  • dukeakasmudge
    November 5, 2009
    dukeakasmudge
    The movie had me hooked from the start but the ending left so many questions unanswered
  • TheHitcher1987
    October 21, 2009
    TheHitcher1987
    Last Viewed: 19/10/2009

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Critic Reviews

May 28, 2009
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

What happens in Goodbye Solo meets the complex demands of good classic storytelling. full review

May 7, 2009
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

A quietly soulful study of two very different men. full review

March 26, 2009
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

The story told in Goodbye Solo, Ramin Bahrani's wonderful third feature, is moving and mysterious, and you may find yourself pondering its implications for a long time after the film's simple and haun... full review

March 26, 2009
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Bahrani is the new great American director. He never steps wrong. In Goodbye Solo, he begins with a situation that might unfold in a dozen different ways and makes of it something original and profound. full review

March 23, 2009
David Edelstein, New York Magazine

[Writer-director] has made a true drama, a tug-of-war between hope and resignation in which neither player openly speaks to what's coming. full review

March 23, 2009
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

Solo confronts a less-than-jolly existence with a perpetual smile and helping hand, his upbeat, selfless attitude a means of repelling the harsh realities that threaten to break his spirit. full review

View more Goodbye Solo reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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