It’s rare to see a film that is sucessful simply because of its subject, but this film fits that bill. The Cruise, a film by Capote’s Bennett Miller, is successful entirely because of the strength of Timothy ‘Speed’ Levitch’s personality, and Miller’s wise decision to hand the film over to him. I’ve seen this film many times now, and it is the only film that I own on VHS (which I’ve retired since the DVD came out); and it is one of the first films that comes to mind when I am in charge of putting on a movie night for a group of individuals which I am unfamiliar with their tastes. It feels as if I am introducing them to a friend of mine that I am sure they will get a kick out of rather than a film. Every reaction that I have heard from the film is along the lines of ‘I love that man!’ to ‘that guy is hilarious!’ and hardly ever ‘that was an
I was pleased when Levitch admits that everyone has moments of narcissism, because the manner in which Levitch is hoisted during a good chunk of The Cruise, if not all of it, is extremely self-indulgent, and the worst instances of this are so glaring because of Miller’s inexperience, such as a shot of Levitch, standing on the edge of the sidewalk, cautiously tapping his foot onto the street before crossing slowly and aimlessly, while the camera sits back and watches. While much of the film has the camera following Levitch around, this scene self-conciously screams ‘look how strange, yet fun, this guys is!’ The film works best when Levitch is giving his tours, calling out his unimaginably rich knowledge of NYC landmarks as if it were the alphabet, engaging in repartee with the driver, and letting his personality out more candidly and spontaneously.
As a film focused solely on Levitch, it naturally calls many decisions into question, such as the narcissistic tendencies, and it makes me wonder if the film would have functioned better if it had followed other bus tourers, too; even if only three total. Levitch’s personality still would have stood out from the others’, no doubt, but it would have offered a nice point of reference as to just how much more Oomph there is in his tours than anybody else’s, instead of Miller deciding this for us by choosing only him to be the subject of a feature-length film. Either way, this film is very engaging from start to finish, and I’m glad that Levitch hasn’t been exploited too much since this film’s release other than the occasional Linklater cameo; it retains this film’s charm.