Night on Earth review

 Number 478 on the top 1000 films of all time is Jim Jarmusch's comedy-drama anthology 'Night on Earth.'

Night on Earth tells five vignettes of five taxi drivers and their relationships with their passengers all on the same night across five different cities: Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Rome and Helsinki.

Night on Earth was a charming film that deftly navigated a number of themes including heartbreak, connection and comedy all while getting you to care about its characters in a limited space of time. Across five different short films with all different casts, we get to see what makes us different, but more importantly the same.

The first vignette focusses on LA taxi driver Corky (Wionna Ryder.) Corky is a tomboy and has no great aspirations in life beyond being a taxi driver and a mechanic. This is in contrast with her upper-class passenger, casting director Victoria Snelling (Gena Rowlands.) Despite their differences, they form a certain rapport and understanding by the end of their journey together. Victoria even wants to cast Corky in her latest film, but Corky is happy with her current direction in life. It was a nice little insight into how we work as people. Not everybody has lofty aspirations. Some people are happy with whatever they have and that's okay.

The second vignette is probably the funniest. It follows the relationship between East German immigrant Helmut's (Armin Mueller-Stahl's) first night as a taxi driver in New York. His passenger is the loud-mouthed and obnoxious Yo-Yo (Giancarlo Esposito) who startled at Helmut's seeming incompetence decides to drive the taxi instead. The two characters could not have been more different from each other yet they embodied a brilliant odd-couple relationship. Helmut was endearing and although Yo-Yo was a bit annoying at first, he ended up being likeable too.

Our third vignette takes us to Paris where after an unnamed Ivorian taxi driver (Isaach de Bankole) abruptly turfs out two rude passengers, he accepts a new fare of a blind woman (Beatrice Dalle.) It was a pleasant enough story but largely forgettable compared to the others. Although there were a few moments of humour.

The fourth story set in Rome was probably my least favourite. It focussed on eccentric taxi driver Gino (Roberto Benigni) who after picking up a priest (Paolo Bonecelli,) proceeds to make a toe-curling confession which is almost too much for the priest to bear. Although this story was played for laughs with Benigni largely improvising, I did find it far too zany and over-the-top for my tastes. Benigni was so over-the-top, he became rather annoying.

Thankfully, we had the final Helsinki storyline as a touching palate cleanser. It focusses on Finnish taxi driver Mika (Matti Pellonpaa) who relates his tragic personal history to his drunk passengers. It was bittersweet way of ending the film, but also helped to offset some of the Night on Earth's zanier storylines. It was one of my favourite stories of the five.

Being an anthology film, naturally some of the vignettes were better than others. However, I think the film worked both as a whole and individually. I definitely recommend it.

Down By Law review

 Number 424 on the top 1000 films of all time is the independent noir comedy 'Down by Law.'

Zack (Tom Waits) a disc jockey and Jack (John Lurie) a pimp, are both set up and sent to jail. There they meet optimistic Italian Bob (Roberto Benigni.) The three of them stage a jailbreak together.

This was a strange film that dallied with the surreal even if it never quite crossed that bridge. The film subverted the odd couple trope by inserting a third member - the insufferably optimistic Bob - Roberto Benigni in his first American film.

Benigni really shone in this film helping to bring a lot of the off-beat comedy to what could have otherwise been quite a dour film. He also served as a foil between the warring Zack and Jack. Neither character liked each other very much, but Bob served as the glue which held the trio together. He has many endearing traits from his joie di vivre, but also his notebook full of English and Italian translations. The role wasn't unlike Benigni's Oscar-winning performance in Life is Beautiful.

Tom Waits is better known as a blues and rock singer, but he brought that same brooding mentality to the role of Zack. Waits also put his trademark deep, gravelly voice to good use. Zack is an angry, bitter man who is resentful toward the world, not unlike Jack in that regard.

As well as eschewing the odd couple trope, Down by Law also minimises the jail break itself in favour of focussing on the begrudging relationship that forms between the three men. As much as they don't want to admit it, they all need each other to survive. All this is captured in black and white, which stripped away any excess and helped to focus the off-beat humour of the film.

Down by Law was certainly an unconventional film that deliberately eschewed established norms, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.