Goodbye Solo to Air Tonight on PBS

It’s not every June that brings the opportunity to see one of last year’s most acclaimed films on television—and without even a cable connection, at that!—but this June is one of those times. PBS scored a coup by booking 2009’s striking Goodbye Solo as part of its “Independent Lens” series, and it airs tonight at 10pm, EST.

This is the third film by one of the cinema’s most promising young directors, Ramin Bahrani. The first thing you might notice is how much the film is a reflection of our new multicultural world—an American director of Iranian descent’s story of a Senegalese cab driver and a white octogenarian in Bahrani’s hometown of Winston-Salem, N.C. But it is, of course, so much more than that—Goodbye Solo is probably the finest illustration yet of what A.O. Scott of the New York Times has called the neo-neo-realist movement in American film. The plot is relatively simple: A cab driver is curious when one of his passengers offers him $1000 up front for a one-way trip ten days hence to nearby Blowing Rock Mountain. When the driver jokes “You’re not going to jump off, are you?” he’s met with stony silence. His attempts over the next few days to penetrate the life of the man in his backseat form the crux of the film.

Veteran actor (and, it must be said, Former Elvis Presley bodyguard) Red West gets the role of his career here, and like Hal Holbrook in 2009’s That Evening Sun, he makes the most of it, turning what could have been a stereotyped crusty old man role into a portrait of great pathos. And Souleymane Sy Savane has a remarkable debut as the titular Solo, his easy smile, gentle teasing, and sunny worldview reflecting a peculiarly African charm. This is not a film where much happens—and that’s part of the point. Settle into your seat and slow your life down for an hour and a half, sink into Solo and William’s world, and see if you don’t come away with a memorable experience.

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