Taxi Blues

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Audience Member This motion picture is a vivid representative of the Soviet and Russian cinema of the times of great changes, perestroika. The story of this film is an enchanting demonstration of the dramatic collision of energies seething at the end of the Red Empire. This is a photograph of that unique time. Time similar to a broken-down taxi, rushing along the avenues of a crumbling country. The viewer, who becomes a passenger in an old Volga with checkered characters, of course, will be accompanied by a premonition that the transport is about to turn over and explode. A wonderful time. Inhale before the disaster. The wind of change is blowing from somewhere with the sound of a saxophone. The older generation feels something, but cannot express what it is. All that remains is to grumble about conspiracy theories and look for the culprit. Who's to blame? Hard workers, decent and strong, now and then encounter something new and incomprehensible. It is alarming, it is disgusting, but it turns out that without this new and living it is difficult to live, having tasted it once. Lungin brilliantly paints portraits of that time. So picturesque that they come to life on the screen, and the viewer already smells a communal apartment and drunks in lines for vodka. Bright film, lightweight. The film is about a difficult relationship and a difficult time, vague, but he speaks in intelligible cinema phrases, and a touch of absurdity of what is happening brings a lot of joy to such a viewer like me. Well ... For some, the Taxi Blues will be a great way to feel nostalgia, for some a new journey to places that were ... But which are already hard to believe. Most importantly, this film will reveal what the hearts of those people who dreamed and loved at that time wrote in eternity. We dreamed of life and loved life. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member A strange friendship of impoverished, drinking Jewish musician and a Russian taxi driver in Moscow of the late 80s, when the USSR was crumbling apart. Gloomy, dark, depressing, but with a certain dynamics. Interesting to watch. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review walter m In "Taxi Blues," Ivan(Pyotr Zaychenko), a burly cab driver in Moscow, has to deal with the usual nuisances his profession has to face the world over like drunk passengers and being stiffed for fare. This particular night is no exception as Alexei(Pyotr Mamonov), a jazz musician, leaves his cab without paying him. However, Ivan goes to the trouble of tracking him down to a bathroom in a club which Alexei surprisingly has no problem with since how much more can a beating add to the pain of the hangover he is already suffering through? Instead of inflicting physical punishment, Ivan takes his prized saxophone for payment but has second thoughts just before selling it... "Taxi Blues" is a time capsule of a society imploding where everybody desperately wants to get drunk but nobody has a ration card necessary to purchase alcohol, feeding a thriving black market. Ivan is the exception to the rule as he spends much of his time lifting weights and despite his gruff exterior, does his best to save Alexei from himself because he sees the potential in him like the way the film hints at the potential of the Russian people. However, a substance abusing jazz musician is such a cliche that Geoff Dyer once suggested Bellevue Hospital as a possible spiritual home for jazz. Now, if only the movie had a proper ending. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member This is possibly the worst Russian movie I've ever seen. Overly long, populated with unpleasant and unsympathetic characters and with a mildly unsettling xenophobic message to top it all off, this film has precious little to redeem it aside from strong acting and an interesting premise that nonetheless manages to go off the rails more than once. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Audience Member Craziest movie ive seen in a while.. wish i understood more about the nuances of Russia right after the fall of the USSR.. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Taxi Blues

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