THE CRUISE (United States)
A review by Mark R. Leeper in bullet-list form
from the Toronto Internation Film Festival
CAPSULE: Black and white documentary about Timothy Speed Levitch, free soul and tour guide on the Gray Line. This is a 76-minute portrait of a very strange person, advocate of the existential "The Cruise" and enemy of the Anti-Cruise. Levitch seems to have strong opinions about nearly everything. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), high +1 (-4 to +4)
- Bennett Miller directs and edits footage a film about Timothy Levitch, a $200/week tour guide from New York City who is a genuine original. - Levitch talks in similes, opaque metaphors, literary references, and just plain strange comments. - Levitch seems incredibly overqualified for his job on occasion. - Other times he seems little more coherent than some of the homeless. - Recently Levitch was certain that the city was angry at him for some wrong it imagined he committed. Manhattan has now forgiven him, also for no obvious reason. He sees this anger in the shortness of the lower buildings. - His customers on the Gray Line are flooded with literary allusions and quotes. - Levitch sees the grid street plan of Manhattan as being stifling. - He took great offense when someone told him, "Everybody likes the grid plan." He also took great offense when the Gray Line told him he had to wear a red T-shirt as part of his uniform. These restrictions are part of the "anti-cruise" and he is "in love with the frantic chaos of the limitless universe." - His favorite diversions include going to the plaza between the World Trade Center towers, spinning himself dizzy, then lying on his back and looking up at the towers.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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