Jim Jarmusch is an independent filmmaker known for making a lot of anti-mainstream films with an offbeat track to them, clearly inspired by the French New Wave of cinema. With NIGHT ON EARTH, as most of his pictures, they have some harsh reality in it, but at the end it makes you feel good and satisfied. NIGHT ON EARTH is an offbeat cult film that does lift your spirits somewhat.
This film is really an anthology. The events of the film take place on the same night. It's five stories taking place in five cities: Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, & Helsinki. About 99% of the film takes place inside a taxicab. It shows the relation that taxi drivers sometimes have with their customers.
In the Los Angeles segment, Winona Ryder is a tomboy cab driver picking up Gena Rowlands, a Hollywood persona. In the New York segment, Armin Mueller-Stahl is a German immigrant driver taught by Giancarlo Esposito the streets of New York. In the Paris segment, an African cab driver picks up a blind woman. In the Rome segment, Roberto Benigni is a motor-mouthed driver picking up a sickly priest. And in the Helsinki segment, three workers, one of whom is depressed and drunk have an interesting conversation with the driver.
This is one of Jarmusch's best films, because it shows how important to subtleties in riding in a cab can be rather uplifting. I myself had a taxicab experience like this while riding a cab in Berlin, so there's a personal connection for me. It's different from most Jarmusch films because it's filmed in color, when most Jarmusch fans would prefer black and white. It's more uplifting than most of his films, so the black and white wouldn't work out so well.
It has a comedic value to it. Roberto Benigni's character is absolutely to die for. There's a really great musical score in the film by one of my favorite artists, Tom Waits. His rather jazzy sounds give it a noir-ish feel to it. It's an offbeat kind of film, but it's well filmed, well scripted, well acted, and has a feel-good value to it.