The Cruise

1989 documentary

Rating: 17/20

Plot: A few days in the life of New York City bus tour guide Timothy "Speed" Levitch who waxes profusely, shows off for the camera a bit, and just might be having sexual relations with the city.

I also watched this in honor of the Titanic tragedy. I'm moved by Levitch's message ("the most beautiful failure is the pursuit of individuality"), his lovely singing voice (Gershwin's "There Writing Songs of Love but Not for Me"), and the little biographical tidbits that are peppered throughout this. This is a movie that is about Levitch's loneliness in one of the most populated cities on earth than anything else. No, not everybody is going to appreciate this oddball (eyeing you here, Cory), but I really enjoy the 80-or-so-minute journey through Levitch's noggin. His goal to be "thrilled to be alive and still be respected" or desire to "look at the flower, appreciate the beauty of the flower, and have the flower appreciate the beauty of [him]" and other ramblings could be tossed off as this neo-hippie nonsense, but I just find them profound and beautiful. Maybe his worldview just matches up with mine. When he talks about having an "intimate love affair with a flower" and how that would be a much better experience than having one with "some of the more banal creatures of the human race," I can definitely identify. But no, I've never looked at leaves and thought of them as sexy. And I don't have a terracotta fetish either, but I can be entertained by his simulated (I hope) orgasm that he has while a few confused pedestrians look on. It rivals Meg Ryan's work in that one movie. The tour guide stuff was fascinating, too. You get to find out Dylan Thomas's last words, and it's always nice when a tour guide points out the sun.

"This is ludicrousness, and it cannot last!"