Brumby Boylston | Cruising Electric (1980) / 2014

the newest game

by Douglas Messerli

 

Brumby Boylston (screenwriter and director) Cruising Electric (1980) / 2014 [1 minute]

 

Satirizing the 1980 Al Pacino film Cruising this very short film of one minute imitates commercial ads, advertising a game played by two young boys of the film, including a complete hanky code which they need to learn to play the game successful, particularly “watersports.” The goal is it help the major figure cruise his way around the block and meet up with his car at precisely the right time. And there are apparently other possibilities, as when a police car suddenly follows the hero, only for us to discover that, no, he is a friendly leather friend from the bar world which Pacino inhabits.

    A father looks over the children’s shoulder as they play the game, sometimes in worried wonderment, but mostly with grateful approval of the video game created by RamJac hobby and toy company. And he seems almost in awe when, like his children, he sees the leather man appear in their imaginative “reality.”

     This film, clearly mocking how even the most perverse and violent of films can easily become toys for children, is, after all, a one-liner, the kind of episode that Saturday Night live might feature.

     It’s funny for a second or two until it dawns on us just how terrifying this transformation from a feature film into a children’s video actually is.

 

Los Angeles, September 11, 2026 | Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2026)