Reviews & Ratings for
"Taxicab Confessions" More at IMDbPro »

11 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
A Gem not to be missed, 5 October 2006

Author: jalbert-8 from United States

Taxicab Confessions needs to be released on DVD. As a documentarian myself, this is one of my favorites. Gritty and unapolgetically real. Taxicab Confessions displays a wide range of what is part of the human spectrum. Moving, unsettling, sad, disgusting, wonderful, human, real, touching - it's all of these. It should be continued in more cities (took place in NYC) and as a regular series, but in the same manner as it was originally filmed and created. I would love to see a Chicago Taxicab Confessionals, as well as LA, etc. even a small town series - as well as international cities with subtitles. It seems that the best series are always the shortest lived.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Fly on the windshield, 5 January 2012

Author: evening1 from New York City

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

How is it that people will keep their innermost secrets from run-of-the-mill strangers but when the stranger drives a cab inhibitions fly out the window?

This intriguing documentary captures the conversation as a variety of camera-rigged taxicabs wends through the seamier parts of Manhattan in search of unsuspecting confessors.

The drivers are a lot like good shrinks -- they're quick on their feet, curious, non-judgmental, and expert at drawing the other person out.

The viewer becomes a voyeur of sorts as all manner of folk climb into the backseat. Ironically, the penultimate passenger we meet literally is a voyeur who brags about surreptitiously filming his sex partners. He was intensely unlikeable, but a number of the other riders were surprisingly endearing.

I particularly liked the transsexual hooker who said she was looking for sex but seemed more to need a shoulder to cry on. "I can't really love no one," she says. "When a man gets too close to me, I run away."

I also enjoyed the sweaty, bare-chested black man who complained that cabbies often avoid picking up African Americans. He had some interesting things to say about race relations.

The movie wakes one up to the fact that every passing person stands center-stage in his own private drama. Under ordinary circumstances, we wouldn't know anything about it. And it's amazing the things that rile people up.

"I can't believe this city is getting so f_____ up that people would steal puppies," rants a Latin squatter dude.

"Sick people are strong -- there's strength in infirmity," says a man with AIDS. "I have the power. Amen."

Equally funny, shocking, and profound, it proves that real life is infinitely more entertaining than anything TV, movie or fantasy. Sheer fascination., 17 October 2012

Author: Foreverisacastironmess from ukwitchcountry

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

What's this complete bull about the passengers being fake? If they were truly acting, wouldn't they have been all over-theatrical with their hand gestures and phrasing? And if they had been actors, well law of averages dictates that at least one of them would have appeared in some crappy TV movie or play or something or outed the great non-existent secret of the show. And some of the other reviewers call it bad acting-but think about it for a second, if what their actually "acting" is normal, then it's actually damn good acting! And yeah, some of them do look at the camera, but they don't look at it and dart their eyes away, like they know they've made a mistake. Their eyes just sort of roll over where the camera happens to be. Bound to happen sometime. And also, oh, you met someone on the street that TOLD you it was fake. What are we like, supposed to just believe you? I call b******t on that! It was the real deal, sorry.:::2::: You saw and heard the weird, bizarre and unbelievable "confessions" of mostly ordinary people. Most of them taking place at night, and usually the folks were on their way to or from a nightclub, or just going home for the night. I think it was the fact that it was nighttime, and that they were usually going out for a night on the town that made the people so open with someone they knew they would probably never see again, and tell them things they normally wouldn't tell anyone. There were so many colourful and varied encounters. A few of the ones that really stick in my mind are: the one with the lesbian best friends who entertained the very happy driver by kissing and pressing their boobs together, a guy and his much older lover who appeared to have a quickie(!!!)on the backseat, a couple of very drunk small town girls who had won a trip to Las Vegas, a rich guy who claimed to have lived with tribes in Africa for a year, a hysterical encounter with this crazy Austrailian chick who kept slapping and abusing her meek, whiny rich boyfriend, a cop who confessed that the best part of his job was being allowed to carry a gun, and probably my favourite was the one with the cancer survivor cabaret singer, whom the driver got to do a little singing. That was a really uplifting one. It wasn't always about being raunchy or funny though, sometimes the "rides" could be seriously heart-wrenching, such as one where a beat-looking woman talked about the horrors of an abusive father and a brother who had recently died. Another was this burnt-down old alcoholic who was at first really aggressive and threatening to the female driver, but eventually mellowed out and was sobbing on her shoulder. There was just such a sheer realism and a depth of pain there that I feel just couldn't ever be faked. I wish them both the best...:::3::: Even if it was acting-which it wasn't, I personally don't give a s**t, it all somehow captured the essence of real life. That's why I rate this show so highly, because when I used to watch it, I felt as though I were watching life. Real, incredibly grim, pathetic, hilarious, and occasionally even beautiful-all the way to the f*****g bone, life. There's never been another reality show quite like this one, it was truly one of a kind, and still is. It was the ride of our lives...

0 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
OMG HOW fake!!!!!, 5 June 2011

Author: arfdawg-1 from United States

Great concept and well done but totally fake

Early on there was a segment with an extraordinarily amazing story about a dude married to a super rich chick on west side...blah blah blah...she dies...blg blah blah... he winds up homeless.

only a week after the show aired I see him in front of a store on the upper east side and guess what?

He tells me the entire story was scripted.

Made up.

A lie for HBO.

Bad HBO. BAd.

3 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Faked...Scripted...with very poor actors, 19 August 2009
Author: webcrawler from New York, New York

First of all, if you lived in New York City you knew right away that this was a scripted situation. The characters depicted were the types that actual New York taxi drivers WOULD NEVER stop for. Also, the next time you catch a repeat, notice how much light there is inside the taxi cab at night. Just enough light for the 'hidden' camera. Right. And, the actors were so bad that you always caught them looking right into the 'hidden' camera that they were alleged not to know was there. Secondly, nobody talks to a taxi driver that much. The most conversation is "Do you have change?". If you were really a crack head would you have money for a taxi ride? And, would the driver stop to pick you up in the first place?

6 out of 33 people found the following review useful:
Taxicab reality, 4 November 2001
Author: Zeljko (zeljkoo@yahoo.com) from Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina

Taxicab reality

This documentary shows us New York at night from

taxicab view. Everybody had to see this masterpiece of work by Harry Gantz and Joe Gantz. Like in the (Robert De Nero) Taxi Driver in this documentary you can see all the scum on the earth.

All the evil comes out at night. In this documentary you can see gay, cops, hookers, drugs, homeless people.

You can see what the pain really is, and you must be pleased by normal and healthy.

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