Goodbye Solo poster & wallpaper
Get movie widget Recommend it Add to Favorites

Souleymane Sy Savane, Red West, Diana Franco Galindo, Carmen Levya, Lane "Roc" Williams ... see more see more... , Mamadou

A Senegalese taxi driver living in Winston-Salem, NC, makes the decision to befriend a depressive passenger with a tragic plan in director Ramin Bahrani's deeply humanistic drama. Solo (Souléymane Sy ... read more read more...Savané) is a cab driver who believes that everyone should be engaged and concerned with one another, and thus lacks the self-conscious view of relationships so prevalent in North American society. When a 70-year-old passenger named William (Red West) hails Solo's cab and he books him for another ride in two weeks during the course of the ride, it quickly becomes apparent during their negotiation that the man isn't planning to return from his impending trip. Troubled at the thought of what his passenger has planned, Solo does his best to strike up a friendship and convince William to reconsider. But William harbors a pain more deep-rooted than Solo first senses, displaying a visible desire for privacy that immediately puts him at odds with the genuinely concerned cab driver. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Flixster Users

81% liked it

4,114 ratings

Critics

95% liked it

101 critics

R, 1 hr. 31 min.

Directed by: Ramin Bahrani

Release Date: March 27, 2009

Invite friends to see

DVD Release Date: August 25, 2009

Get It:

Stats: 412 reviews

report incorrect info

Photos

official film still official film still official film still official film still official film still DVD box art DVD box art Goodbye Solo
Upload a Photo | View All Goodbye Solo Photos

Your Rating


clear rating

Flixster Reviews (412)

  • bbcfloridabound
    August 26, 2010
    bbcfloridabound
    Nothing short of Excellent. About a man who is about to end his life, and Solo played by Souléymane Sy Savané does everything he can't to prevent it from happing. Not one you will see on any film list but a top ten in my book. 5 Stars. Filmed in and around Blowing Rock North Car... read moreolina.
  • Alireza64ir
    August 13, 2010
    Alireza64ir
    It deserved more attention.This small,independent movie easily touches our heart.
  • sanjurosamurai
    March 1, 2010
    sanjurosamurai
    a beautiful piece of cinema and one of the more underrated films of 2009. a very unique story and incredible performance by savane, the story is stripped down to nothing but the essentials. the film poses dozens of questions and answers only a few of them, but for this story it... read more doesnt detract. we only know what solo knows, and its better that way. excellent film.
  • michaelneumann
    April 11, 2010
    michaelneumann
    As much as this title could've worked for the events at the end of Empire Strikes Back, a sequence of events forever frozen in movie carbonite of awesomeness, it somehow works better here. Goodbye Solo is a terrific movie of simple yet profound emotional power, under the load-be... read morearing pillars of its 2 main characters: William (Red West) and Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané). The movie opens by dropping the viewer off into a conversation that builds the skeleton for the rest of the film (a process that adds its heart and soul): Solo, a Senegalese cab driver in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is taking William, a grizzled old man with a calloused face, to a movie theater, innocently enough. William makes Solo an offer: in 10 days' time, drive him to Blowing Rock National Park for a cool grand - far more than the fare for a few hours' drive is worth. No return trip is mentioned. Solo, ever inquisitive, jokingly stumbles into the truth as he deluges William with questions. This forges Solo's mindset into one of curiosity translated through relentless good cheer, and yet the cantankerous William, brusquely protecting himself from too many questions with an f-bomb minefield, remains unfazed. Or does he?

    As the film proceeds, we find Solo jockeying himself at dispatch to become William's exclusive cab driver, and whether William is just too tired or just doesn't care, his passiveness allows Solo to ferret his way into William's days. Very naturally presented is Solo being married to Quiera (whom is pregnant with Solo's first child), is a stepfather to bright young Alex, and is interviewing to become a flight attendant. Solo unflinchingly shares all of this with William, perhaps as a tactic to provoke William to share, but if so it fails, as the viewer knows only as much as Solo does about William's life - which is to say, not much. Solo, along with the audience, continues to observe William, sometimes going out of his way to do so, trying to find out why this old man wants to go on a one-way mission to Blowing Rock to... well, it remains unsaid, but everybody knows it. Solo wants to help. It is in his nature. But, William snipes every advance to be helped; he is as resolved as his face is etched with years.

    Roger Ebert has a great line in describing these protagonists: "William's face was made to look pissed off; Solo's face was made to smile." So right. And it goes a long way to visually depict the difference between these two characters, and how they act. Speaking of which, nothing felt like acting in this movie - nobody is recognizable. Equally authentic is the movie's "soundtrack," which consists of what's on the radio in Solo's cab and the random noises of the night (and day) of Winston-Salem. This emphasizes the movie's almost minimalist intimacy all the more - kind of a documentarian's view of Winston-Salem, and of these two souls, very simply, being who they are with each other. An undercurrent of sorrow murmurs with each passing scene, despite Solo's infectious upbeatness. Slowly, we begin to see the depth of emotion glistening in the eyes of both William and Solo as the 10th day nears, as a few grains of truth about William's movie theater missions are revealed, and as Solo's life undergoes new changes. There is no cavalcade of dramatic events; just their lives having grown because of each other, very honestly and powerfully punctuated when Solo discovers William's small journal of observations over the past several days they spent together. It is in these final few scenes of Goodbye Solo that it takes an elegiac tone, as so much seems to have been set in place that fates simply could not be averted. You just have to accept it, even if there was an infinitesimal reason for avoiding it that may have germinated over the days spent. What is unmistakable, however, is that Solo and William were all the more enriched for each other throughout this film. And I all the more enriched for having witnessed it.
  • gator681
    April 26, 2009
    gator681
    [font=Century Gothic]"Goodbye Solo" is another heartfelt slice of life movie from Ramin Bahrani that is sadly not able to measure up to his previous two efforts. This time around, he is a bit more ambitious in telling the story of Solo(Souleymane Sy Savane), a cab driver from Se... read morenegal, living in Winston-Salem who dreams of becoming a flight attendant. That is not as compelling as the dreams of other men becoming their own man in "Man Push Cart" and "Chop Shop" which may be because Solo is about to become a father for the first time. So, he has more important things to care about which changes one night when he picks up William(Red West) to drive him to a movie theater. Along the way, William asks him to take him to a local mountain and leave him there for $1000 on October 20. At first, Solo thinks he is joking but then realizes he is not and becomes personally involved.[/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]As far as other movie references go, I know other people have brought up "A Taste of Cherry" and I was also thinking of "Ballad of Narayama" but that could be because I have just seen it. There is also definitely an odd couple vibe in the relationship between the taciturn William and garrulous Solo. At least, William does not seem to be much of a racist. [/font]
  • fb796967648
    April 1, 2009
    fb796967648
    This itty bitty barely-a-movie both requires and rewards patience. The tiny story of a cab driver in Winston-Salem and the crabby old man he tries and tries to befriend also happens to be about all the big stuff: how to be a friend, how to live your life and maybe even how to n... read moreot live it at all anymore. Specal and not for everybody, but well worth the trip.
  • debmm
    April 7, 2010
    debmm
    "You like birds, Big Dog? Are you going to fly away?"

    A touching, sober film on the polarities of personalities, life and our choices. Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané) is a young taxi driver full of hope for the future and William (Red West) is basically finished with hope... read more.

    Some have described this film as riveting and inspiring but I would disagree. I found it sad and realistic.
  • sportsphenom1
    December 11, 2009
    sportsphenom1
    Hello, "Solo", and welcome to my list of the ten best movies of the year. This didn't quite make the 5 star rating, but I can't quite put my finger on why. Nevertheless, this "Visitor"-like film gets high marks.
  • 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.
  • 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 mored 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.

View All Goodbye Solo Reviews

Critic Reviews

Ronnie Scheib
December 16, 2009
Ronnie Scheib, Variety

Utterly engrossing dual-character study, unfolding with a serene disregard for indie quirkiness, Goodbye Solo radiates authenticity. Full Review

Gautaman Bhaskaran
May 29, 2009
Gautaman Bhaskaran, Hollywood Reporter

It is both funny and sad, placid and provocative and, above all, hopeful and despairing.

Greg Quill
May 29, 2009
Greg Quill, Toronto Star

Every moment -- including a physically exhausting climactic scene that both confounds expectations and compounds the film's poetic majesty -- is evidence of a masterpiece. Full Review

Liam Lacey
May 28, 2009
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

What happens in Goodbye Solo meets the complex demands of good classic storytelling. Full Review

James Berardinelli
May 18, 2009
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

The lack of melodrama coupled with moments of quiet celebration make Goodbye Solo a more uplifting tale than one might expect with such a less-than-joyous premise. Full Review

Steven Rea
May 7, 2009
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

A quietly soulful study of two very different men. Full Review

Ann Hornaday
May 7, 2009
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

Bahrani's new movie, Goodbye Solo, offers further proof that he is one of the best reasons to keep going to the movies. Full Review

Stanley Kauffmann
May 6, 2009
Stanley Kauffmann, New Republic

The overall effect of Goodbye Solo is of living through a drama of huge subjects, articulated in the vernacular. Full Review

Peter Rainer
April 24, 2009
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

The crazy-quilt quality of these immigrants mixing it up with Southern rednecks like William is deftly underplayed, and so it has more resonance for us. Full Review

Reyhan Harmanci
April 17, 2009
Reyhan Harmanci, San Francisco Chronicle

The movie starts fast and the pace rarely relents. Goodbye Solo is almost frighteningly alive: Other filmmakers must wonder exactly how Ramin Bahrani packs so much personality in what could have been ... Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Cast

More Like This

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

  • The Station Agent
    The Station Agent (100%)
  • The Visitor
    The Visitor (100%)

More Movies like Goodbye Solo

Facts

No facts approved yet. Be the first

Goodbye Solo : Watch Free on TV

Movie Quizzes

No quizzes for Goodbye Solo. Want to create one?

Video Clips

Upload a Video |

All Goodbye Solo Videos

Meet Other Fans

Add Goodbye Solo to favorites

Recent News

Submit a Story |

View Goodbye Solo News

Recent Lists

Make a List |

View All Lists

Most Popular Skin

No skins yet. Interested in creating one?