I just saw Premium
Rush – a movie about bike messengers in New York City who get caught up in
some illegal dealings involving a crooked cop and a (legal) immigrant friend of
theirs… Didn’t sound like it’d be up to much, and also started out feeling VERY
much like Crank… But ended up going
in quite a different direction, although being stylistically interesting in
some sometimes slightly similar ways (good ways, I might add!).
The film is really well cast, I thought. From the one true
bad guy (Michael Shannon; who managed to be remarkably sympathetic – quite a
feat given just what a ‘douchebag’ his character in fact is) to the central
protagonist (amazingly, a young white guy! ) and his fellow messengers and
bikers – not to mention the cycle cop and the kids on school buses – there were
no real cracks in the acting. The cycling politics were interesting (especially
when our hero has the bad guy shouting in his face that everyone in the city
hates him – which is possibly true! – and when, in passing, we see the
aftermath of what happens when messengers use the sidewalk instead of the
road)… But interesting not just about cyclists’ place vis-à-vis cars and
pedestrians, but also in terms of the motivation and risks to those who choose
to cycle at breakneck speed around Manhattan rather than work in an office… and
how significant those motives are to their involvement in the cyclist
community. It’s not deep or anything, but it is thoughtful(!).
And while there is – of course: *yawn* – an element of ‘romance’ to the film, whereby the main
female protagonist is introduced to us largely via our hero, Wilee (Joseph
Gordon-Levitt), she is at least an excellent cyclist and an active participant
in the narrative as well as the action: she (Vanessa, played by Dania Ramirez),
like Gordon-Levitt, is also immensely engaging and likeable, which certainly
helps. The visual (re)presentation of the characters is also not too bad when
it comes to gender: Vanessa wears a sleeveless top, sure – but also, loose
shorts like Wilee, and she’s not overly objectified, ‘even’ in scenes where she
easily could be (such as the flashback sequences in a bar). Similarly, the film
avoids sexualizing/objectifying its other key character, Vanessa’s roommate
Nima (Jamie Chung), who walks around in flats and plain work clothes. (Nima is,
though, very much a female character in terms of her role, and the particular
predicament she’s in that sets off the film’s core narrative.) And even if the
gendered stuff seems okay, nothing is simple: it’s fellow bike messenger Manny (Wolé
Parks) who wears a vest and tight lycra shorts – and Manny is, you guessed it,
a Black guy. He’s also referred to (by Wilee) as being ‘roided up’, and is
framed as a sexual predator, albeit not an aggressive one. In contrast to them
all, Wilee predictably remains un-raced and un-gendered in that he’s just who
he is, dressed in loose shorts and a t-shirt, with his physique correspondingly
treated just that bit differently from both Vanessa’s and Manny’s… So you know,
it’s not as if there aren’t some issues around the film’s representations of
both gender and race – but it could be one hell of a lot worse!
Actually, it might be. The way the Chinese are ultimately represented is... problematic at best. But at least interesting-problematic, rather than just crappy-problematic. (And it maybe gets away with it because sympathetic or not, Michael Shannon's bad guy really IS bad!)
Oh and the action in this movie is pretty great. I really
enjoyed the cycling scenes – even the ‘race’ between Manny and Wilee, and even when
Wilee uses his cycling skills to send the poor cycle cop flying!
A fun movie, some nice action, and an interesting take on
cyclists and how and why they do what they do. Also, Wilee’s bad luck with
sandwiches did elicit my sympathy – as did, of course, the play on Wil E. Coyote and
the Road Runner inherent in his name (even if Gordon-Levitt is not quite Tommy
Lee Jones!).
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