Last night I watched The Cruise, and I think it will be probably be one of my favorite films ever, if it isn't already. I always kind of knew it existed, partly from associating it with Waking Life, which is also great but in a very different way. (Not a doc, to begin...) But I've never really heard anyone I know mention it, in interspace or otherwise.

The Cruise is a documentary about Timothy Speed Levitch, who conducts tours, 'cruises' of Manhattan. His 'cruises' are highly literary, and ridiculously detailed-- for instance noting the seven miles of elevator shaft in the area around the Empire State Building. The film is also the most affecting 'portrait' of any real person I've seen in a long time. It's a documentary, but the affiliation is really only by the fact that it covers 'real life'. What it really is, is a fucking heroicly great piece of filmaking. This has to be one of the best films of the past 10 years.

I especially love the shots that show Levitch, in profile or from in front of the tour bus, narrating the cruise. A shot that shows Levitch and only a few tourists seated at the bottom of the frame, foregrounded over a rapidly disappearing Manhattan, is especially terrrific.

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If you don't know about Ron Padgett reading with Daniel Borzutzky, Friday 7pm here, and also this, and live within a reasonable distance, now ya heard.