Taxi 2015

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: Often extremely funny, always thoughtful, the movie transcends its static nature to become a deeper picture of modern Iran than any news story could offer. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: Banned Iranian director Jafar Panahi takes to the streets of Tehran for another playful yet profound musing on the intersection of life and art. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: It's more than just an affirmation of its maker's un-crushable artistic ambition. It's also a nimble, funny, honest-to-God movie. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Those who've followed Panahi's career over the decades will catch echoes of and references to his earlier movies, and at times "Taxi" is as much a tour of his filmography as it is of Tehran. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: Panahi looks for new perspectives everywhere he goes, and this search reflects his unwavering devotion to cinema, which has the power to transmit those perspectives to the world. Read more

Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter: Amazingly, Panahi turns the utterly simple, economical format of a camera inside a car into something relevant to his own artistic state and full of eye-opening insights into Iranian society. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: It's an act of defiance that's also a sublime piece of cinema, and it ranks among the director's finest work. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Panahi's status as a martyr for his art could have gulled him into loftiness and pride; and yet, by some miracle, Taxi stays as modest as his smile, the point being not to recruit us to his cause but to put us on the side of his compatriots. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: Panahi has made three features since 2010, when the Iranian government officially prohibited him from working. The latest, Taxi, is the friskiest and most expansive. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: [Panahi has] created his most accessible nonfilm yet. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It's playful and thoughtful, informed by the director's affable, patient, slightly worried demeanor. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Jafar Panahi's Taxi looks onto a world where the social order and the spiritual order are at odds, in flux, where the conversations are sometimes cutting, sometimes comic, sometimes troubled, sometimes profound. Read more

Scott Marks, San Diego Reader: Taxi is easily the director's most accessible work to date. Read more

David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle: This is a movie that you will admire both for its courage and creativity. Read more

Tina Hassannia, Globe and Mail: The film feels as spontaneous and digressive as a Charles Mingus composition, and just as paradoxically light and dense. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Here's proof that you can't keep a great filmmaker down. Read more

David Ehrlich, Time Out: This spry, sharp and relentlessly clever middle finger to censorship is Panahi's boldest act of defiance to date. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: Taxi is paced like a revue, with a showman's elan. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: He looks like he's having a wonderful time, but a sordid reality is never far off: Panahi's films are acts of defiance, and each one could be his last. Read more