Taxi

Saura's first film scripted by another hand is a crude, uneven exposé of vigilante taxi drivers who spend their nights ridding Madrid of undesirables - blacks, gays and drug addicts. While it concentrates on the middle-aged cabbies' murderous conspiracy, the flesh-and-blood performances by Lys and Lopez fuse with Vittorio Storraro's crisp, almost futuristic cinematography, drawing us into their nocturnal world. However, once Santiago Tabernero's script shifts to the drippy teen romance between idealistic teenager Paz (Rubio) and her reluctantly racist/homophobic boyfriend Dani, matters go fuzzy at the edges. Only the instinctive power of 19-year-old newcomer Ingrid Rubio relieves the tedium of watching liberal sentiments fall into place.