In a caustic comedy of startling originality, writer and first-time director Pavel Lounguine takes an unblinking look at Moscow in the glasnost era through the antics of Chlykov (Piotr Zaitchenko), an antisemitic Russian cabbie, and Lyosha (Piotr Mamonov), a vodka-swilling Jewish sax player. Done at a high level of imaginative energy – Denis Evstigneev's location camera work is strikingly vivid – the film is the Soviet entry in the foreign-language Oscar sweepstakes.

Lounguine is cynical about Gorbachev's reforms, and his attitude touched a nerve with the Soviet public. His Moscow is a time bomb where neon-lit streets fail to hide the festering discontent. Chlykov moonlights in the black market, selling vodka to Lyosha and his boozing comrades. But when Lyosha stiffs him on a fare, the brutish Chlykov forces him to work off his debt as a servant in Chlykov's cramped, squalid apartment. Many of these scenes are low-comic howls. And Mamonov, a Russian rock star, gives the kind of exuberantly unleashed performance that spells star in any language.

Chlykov – well played by Zaitchenko – grows to like Lyosha. But class divisions, envy and racism make friendship impossible. When Lyosha becomes a star in America, Chlykov feels rejected and vengeful. Lounguine, a Russian Jew, knows how poverty fans the flames of bigotry. With its depiction of intolerance and budding anarchy, Taxi Blues is a true social satire. Its wit is both revealing and wounding.

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.