Taxi

Paz (Ingrid Rubio) has just flunked her university exams.  Her father (Ángel de Andrés López) takes her on as an apprentice in the taxi driver business.  Paz soon learns that there’s a close-knit group of cabbies that call themselves “The Family”: her father, the flirty Reme (Ágata Lys), the intimidating Niño (Francisco Maestre) and the solemn Calero (Eusebio Lázaro).  Paz strikes up a relationship with Reme’s son Dani (Carlos Fuentes).  But soon she discovers that the “Family” is a fascist cabal that go around murdering ethnic minorities, immigrants, junkies and homosexuals… and that Dani might be one of them.

Like American History X, this is a rather blunt take on racist fascist groups… surprisingly so, coming from Carlos Saura.  Not that these guys wouldn’t be villainous, but it’s too much of a “movie” kind of villainous.  No one here really feels like a real character, it’s all very Hollywood-esque.  And it seems unlikely that they would get away with their activities for very long.  It only takes Paz a few days of listening to their chatter on the CB to figure out what the code words mean… does no one else in the cab company pick up on it?  Okay, it’s possible they’re the only people working for this particular cab company, but still they’re pretty open about their killing.

The cinematography by Vittorio Storaro is as striking as one would expect, with an especially stunning laser tag scene.  But everything else about the movie is pretty ho-hum.  Rating: Poor (55)

IMDb