Bennett Miller’s dizzying character study of Timothy “Speed” Levitch, a double-decker tour bus guide in New York City, gives way to a broader meditation on perception and performance. By turns frenetic and poetic, the film traverses Manhattan with Levitch at the helm. The camera follows him alongside throngs of tourists, microphone in hand. Seeing the city through Levitch’s lens reveals new angles on history and architecture—a little-known fact about a particular place or the decorative detail of an ornate façade. Shot on digital video in the 1990s, the film’s high contrast, black-and-white framing amplifies the character’s own dynamic ways of seeing. Miller also chronicles Levitch’s frustrations behind the scenes at work and savors his affecting ruminations off the clock as he expounds on the ways humans find meaning and purpose. Throughout The Cruise, Levitch never stops. ST