Over the past few years, Ramin Bahrani has carved out a niche as one of the independent film movement’s more interesting new filmmakers with Man Push Cart and Chop Shop, two movies that see the immigrant experience in America with both unvarnished realism and poetry. So why does Goodbye Solo, his latest effort, feel so warmed-over? It’s difficult to say whether Bahrani has lost his nerve this time around and made a film about a helpful African who helps a white man find his way in life, or whether the trailer oversimplifies the story so that it looks like a creaky formula film. My hope is that it’s the latter, and that moments like the African cabbie calling his new pal “original playa!” will be the exception rather than the rule. I’m still inclined to give Bahrani the benefit of the doubt, and I’m hoping this inclination doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.