A Masterpiece!

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Timothy "Speed" Levitch is a fascinating character, a modern beat poet demonstrating how happy Lou Reed and Bob Dylan would be if married. In "Shiva," he demonstrates his always awesome command of the language, his erudition and his apparent love of life, words and New York City. The only problem for the viewers is that we are not all in love with New York City. Speed find in his city a metaphor for everything. The city is a microcosm with all our philosophies, beliefs, desires, emotions and foibles reflected in its statuary, its design, its history. He could be right, and he argues his case very well.Not to suggest that New York City is that black hole crime-ridden evil-folk cesspool it's thought of in some circles, but it's just not for all of us. I'm kind of partial to Philly myself. This movie is a poetic, philosophic 23 minute rant that works beautifully, and I highly recommend it. I hope that Speed's focus broadens to match his intellect...or, at the very least, he falls in love with Philly.

I read Timothy "Speed" Levitch's 2002 book "Speedology". Twice. It is quite refreshing to read his thoughts about Manhattan. Most of what he says in this movie, I think can be found in the book. The problem with the film, is that he speaks so fast, that I can't get 10% of what he says. But then again, I'm not very good in English. Most people find him pretentious, and he probably is. But, it is refreshing to hear someone that is not afraid of being so. I give it a five, which is the lowest I have given any movie. It is not because I didn't like it, its more because its not really a movie, if you understand. Anyway, the DVD have some interesting extra material. And the annotated version of the film is actually better than the original.

Shot in a day, this short film is basically Speed giving the camera tidbits of his New York City tour speech. You could consider it a short version of The Cruise, updated since 9/11.Speed is an interesting character, and has some fun ideas and thoughts. I'm not sure where he comes up with the whacky stuff he does, but the question that comes up in my mind the most is "so this is how this guy's mind works..... interesting."Fun and interesting, the film played well to a pretty liberal college town here in Texas.