Poker Night

Filmed without sets and in available light, the plotless story follows a few cabbies pulling the night shift (Nilsson himself was a former taxi driver). They drive, encounter each other in their cabs, sit around the depot playing poker. The film has distinct sequences played out one after the other, making it feel as if different members of the cast (comprised of actor friends of Nilsson) had their own idea for a scene to be included – so we see an audition for an Odet play, a sequence showing the cab drivers and their fares, a couple of bull sessions around a poker table where stories and jokes are swapped, a two-character dialogue that strips layers off the machismo pretence reserved for everyone else, and a mostly wordless finale when we see exactly what/where one of the cabbies returns to after his shift is done….