The best new movie releases in November

By shutting director Jafar Panahi down, the Iranian government has only made him more powerful than it could have possibly imagined. Banned from making movies and baselessly convicted of crimes against national security, the Offside filmmaker has still managed to export three masterpieces in the five years since his sentencing. Although Taxi has neither the raw anger of This Is Not a Film (2011) nor it’s incredible origin story—the footage was loaded onto a USB drive and then smuggled out of Iran in a cake—this spry, sharp and relentlessly clever middle finger to censorship is Panahi’s boldest act of defiance to date. Taxi finds Panahi behind the wheel of a cab in downtown Tehran. Shot to resemble a documentary (but far too pointed and plot-driven to be mistaken for one), Taxi slowly transforms the interior of Panahi’s car into a stage for crimes, confessions, deathbed declarations and even a goldfishrelated tragedy.