‎Night on Earth (1991) directed by Jim Jarmusch • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Night on Earth

1991 Directed by Jim Jarmusch

Five Taxis. Five Cities. One Night.

An anthology of 5 different cab drivers in 5 American and European cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.

Winona Ryder Gena Rowlands Lisanne Falk Alan Randolph Scott Anthony Portillo Giancarlo Esposito Armin Mueller-Stahl Rosie Perez Richard Boes Isaach De Bankolé Béatrice Dalle Pascal N'Zonzi Emile Abossolo M'bo Noel Kaufmann Stéphane Boucher Roberto Benigni Paolo Bonacelli Gianni Schettino Antonio Ragusa Nicola Facondo Camilla Begnoni Romolo Di Biasi Donatella Servadio Matti Pellonpää Kari Väänänen Sakari Kuosmanen Tomi Salmela Eija Vilpas Jaakko Talaskivi Show All… Klaus Heydemann

129 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Katie ★★★★½ 2

Winona Ryder, Date Me Please
Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★★ 18

10/10 for the Benigni sequence alone.
Review by Leo (Willem) van der Zanden 🔥⬇🏠 ★★★★★ 7

The Ultimate Challenge - Film #2
Added to: People-being-People List

It's clear that I haven't watched enough Jarmusch yet. Night on Earth is one of the most enjoyable cinematic experiences I've ever had and that only comes from one thing: it's unbridled realism. Yes, there are some overtly expressive characters in here and some ridiculous cases of black humor but I feel (feel, as this is only my second Jarmusch) that this is exactly the thing that makes his films so worthwhile.

My only other experience with his cinema was his 2014 feature Only Lovers Left Alive, a bleak interpretation of the vampire myth, that lives on its humane undertone in these inexplicable creatures. With Night on Earth this is…
Review by Hollie Horror ★★★★★ 2

Night on Earth surpassed my expectations. I always love character studies and this is like having five, mini-character studies in one film. Each segment as good as the last.

We are taken to Los Angeles, NYC, Paris, Rome and Helsinki. Each story has it's own personality, much like the individual person driving the taxi, the individuals as passengers and the city themselves are given a perfect opportunity to show their individual personalities too, through the people who live and work there and not to mention the beautiful shots captured on film, city landscapes from the hood of the car and wide shots of the city itself.

Jim Jarmusch did a wonderful job filming each city too, the audience feels as…
Review by Varghese Eapen ★★★★½

Taxi #1 - Always follow your dreams

Taxi #2 - The Funniest of the 5.

Taxi #3 - Never Judge Others

Taxi #4 - Life is too short, so enjoy while you can!

Taxi #5 - Life can be cruel and unfair.
Review by CinemaShadow ★★★★

Using his typical comic-philosophical method, Jarmusch shows us how despite the differences in language, culture, geography and politics the humanity is the same world over. Jarmusch has explored this theme on other occasions as well but this feels like the most obvious representation of it. Watching it for the first time now also makes me wonder whether it led the way for the confessional hidden camera stuff that became popular many year ago. Anywho, this is a funny yet poignant journey with some great music, photography and performances.

Recent reviews

Review by Matt Koske ★★★★★

*****I DON’T GIVE 5 STARS*****

Let me just uhhhhh slide this into the favorites..

Big, huge, humongous fan of short-term storytelling in a long-term, long-lasting affect. And bingo bango bungo does this exceed in its craft. 5 cabbies, 5 cities, 1 night. Boy, that’s the only premise I need.

I dig - to great extent - the subtleties that span across each anthology. They are so greatly different (time, location, emotion, humor) but the mannerisms, the intent and the necessity for nicotine (shout out COFFEE AND CIGARETTES)...this makes it so humanized. Last but not least, the order of the five sequences is a pleasurable treat. I could watch a cabbie in every city in the world in this format and would still be left wanting more.
Review by k ★★★★½

pros: the soundtrack, setting (this was shot entirely on location!), characters and the differences in tone between each of the vignettes were all amazing

cons: miss corky, cab driver and future mechanic, is not currently my girlfriend
Review by inass ★★★★★

Yes! Fucking awesome opening credits first of all! This whole concept is too fucking good! I can't expres how big my weakness for this 90's atmosphere is! This whole movie is cinematic poetry I'm telling you! So enjoyable and well made! :))))
Review by caincarney ★★★★★

The vignette style of this movie maintained a level of distance and detachment from the characters that I don't particularly enjoy because I am eager to learn more and get closer- however, the way the vignettes convey what actually experience is like- random, orchestral, crazy! is beautiful. Additionally, the hunger it left in my stomach for a more developed story for each character- what happens to that hunger post viewing? What is that energy transformed into? This is something beautiful about withholding or cutting short- hunger is maintained. The cast in this is so enjoyable- so many characters.
Review by Verde ★★★★ 2

Four stars just for the last section, but good as a whole too.
Review by Johnny Kashmir ★★★½

It’s fitting that the film to end my current cinematic viewing drought following Taxi Driver is a film that could plausibly be called Taxi Drivers in an alternate timeline. Like the previous film I saw from Jim Jarmusch, Night on Earth drifts at its own pace, telling stories whose theoretical lack of eventfulness never spurs boredom - instead using each character and interaction to yield insights on social dynamics within the world. Though not all the segments are of the same quality, most of the characters in each endear themselves to the point where one can see themselves being open to the idea of feature length versions of each segment. There’s also a quaintness to be felt about the film;…
Review by notsocinephile ★★★★

buscemi, gena, winona, benigni in one frame!? kill me darlings.
Review by Aya Chouklati ★★★★

The fucking opening scene >>>>
Review by Tyler Rugh ★★★½

If you have Winona Ryder in a fifth of your movie you should probably put that fifth last because it’s all downhill from there. Though Jarmusch does downhill nicely, with a whole lot of detours along the way.