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A different way of telling a story

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

As the years go by this cabdriver gets less and less for the rides he's giving. Lousey tips! Oooh! Seeing the movie for the fourth time now prompts a review. This driver I always like; but riders in there with him--quite a few, I don't. I must fast forward so as to not sit in there sharing the same cab with these "inconsiderates".The cabbie is even-tempered and tries to help people, perhaps too much. One is a "Steve" who happens to be a deli chain executive fortunate to have the full attention of his date. He seems responsive and only later when she leaves does this man reveal the true intentions he has about her--she is meaningless to him; she is being, classically, "used". In this film, the driver suffers the same fate: he is used... used by a crack head to score dope; used by a woman who has car trouble and causes trouble for the driver of her cab. Then, too, a body shop wants $185 to put on a new rear door pull with ash tray, thus perhaps totaling more than Dillon the driver's total take for the day. He boldly takes it upon himself to often assist. He buys a young woman a donut, informs "Steve's" date she is a plaything, and while a woman ascends normal steps back to her apartment following a rape and subsequent abrupt discharge from the police station, he sits in his cab still serving her by watching until she's through the door. Sometimes he's physically touched by his fares and hates it; but with the architect who sings Tannenbaum better than any German ever would he extends a handshake that seems never to end. This movie is telling he how I might be as a taxi driver. Those I'd try to get to their destinations and away from at the soonest are people-types I, this time, found myself fast-forwarding through. Some others I'd replay to hear certain phrases over again--for these folks I do visiting! So he's a skin head grown up and can fantasy drum with the best of them! So he swears when little kids march by, smokes in the cab of another driver who sports a Malcolm X cap and doesn't allow smoking; so he pulls out and just about creams the outside of his cab... he's still an utterly decent guy. It's the horror of Christmas approaching those lonely ones--for whatever reason--who is the "killer" in this movie.He tries to understand people yet not intervene in their lives; he can't be considered a friend to any, and yet he tries, in his way, to give them whatever dignity and politeness they are attuned to receiving from this stranger. He's no actual confidant. I would ride in this man's cab. I would give him an extra $10 because he obviously has an enlightened soul, and, well, let's face it: it's getting close to Christmas!

It's Christmastime in Chicago, but the season is not very merry for the cab driver whose name we never learn. He ends up driving a number of quirky characters to places around the city, and a lot of his experiences are not particularly pleasant. And the arm rest on one side of the back seat keeps falling off despite the driver's best efforts.This was a pretty good movie, though not really the type I usually enjoy watching. I think it will appeal to a certain kind of person. All the acting performances were good, and though I can't single anyone out as the best, I really liked the first lawyer and the architect. The scene with the architect may have been the best in the entire movie.The sound went out a number of times during this movie--but it was often obvious what characters were saying. In a couple of cases I think the expression used could be abbreviated F. Y. I'm happier when substitute words are used on network TV, though in this movie, maybe it would have been too much work to fix the incredible number of bad words. I liked one scene where the driver said a bad word which, of course, I couldn't hear, and a child walking by said to the adult with him or her (probably a parent or grandparent), 'He said ****!' I didn't like a lot of the music, but there were several good songs. One was played when the two white drivers and the black driver were discussing whether they should refuse to pick up certain people. Another was used for the scene with the second lawyer. And of course 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas', played near the end, was very enjoyable for me. The credits listed a lot of Christmas songs that I didn't really notice. The decorations were nice. Few people in this movie seemed to be enjoying Christmas, though.This was a worthwhile film, but if you're not lucky enough to see it cleaned up for TV, be prepared for some rough language.

Excellent film with great acting. No real plot to it but a series of incidents you make your own mind up about - some funny some moving. I found the individual stories reminded me of the stories of Raymond Carver - the minutiae of small lives and how people live them. Though the film was largely bleak I found it ultimately uplifting and the fact that it is set at Christmas made it a good seasonal film but without the sentimentality.(I watched this film on TV (titled Chicago Cab) intrigued by the short description. Why anyone would change the title to Hell Cab and give it a 'horror-esque' cover is beyond me - I wouldn't go near it in this box in a video shop.)

I've had the pleasure of seeing the stage version of this piece twice, and my hope with the film was that it would recreate some of that experience. Onstage, a handful of actors play all the fares a Chicago cabbie picks up on one day, which unifies the piece some. In the film, different actors play the fares. Also, in the film, Chicago plays Chicago (and very well). The scenes vary in quality, but most of them are very strong, and for people with an interest in seeing tour de force acting, there are a lot of short, very vivid portraits played mostly by actors with Chicago connections. For anybody who is a fan of Chicago theatre, this is a special treat. Paul Dillon provides the moral center of the piece, a guy trying to both do his job and figure out how to be good under stressful circumstances. Is this a brilliant movie? No. But it gave me a lot more pleasure than any new American film I saw in 2000.