Movie Blog: Speed Freakery At Trylon

I'm known for driving no less than 5 miles above the speed limit at any given time, and feel as though anyone who isn't pushing 75 on the freeway is just trying to get in my way.

So I regard the Trylon Microcinema's January series of car racing movies to be akin to drive-time documentary filmmaking.

OK, maybe I don't quite live up to the standards set by Elvis Presley in the 1960s or Burt Reynolds in the 1970s, and if you're a Minnesotan, I think it's pretty safe to say neither can you. I've seen the way you all drive when there's so much as a light dusting of snow flurry on the asphalt.

We can all live vicariously through these movies, all of which, to take a cue from the Gab Band, just wanna burn rubber on you.

Some, like Smokey and the Bandit, are quicker to offend than they are to tear pavement. Others, such as Two-Lane Blacktop and Vanishing Point, are quick cult classics.

It you don't want to push the pedal to the metal, well, there's always Sofia Coppola's torpid latest, Somewhere. More on that this Friday when it opens.

Here are the dragsters in the main event:

Smokey and the Bandit (Hal Needham, 1977)
Friday, Jan. 07 at 7 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 08 at 9 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 09 at 7 p.m.

Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971)
Friday, Jan. 07 at 9 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 08 at 7 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 09 at 5 p.m.

Fast Company (David Cronenberg, 1979)
Friday, Jan. 14 at 7, 8:50 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 15 at 7, 8:50 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 16 at 5:10, 7 p.m.

Vanishing Point (Richard C. Sarafian, 1971)
Friday, Jan. 21 at 7, 9 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 22 at 7, 9 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 23 at 5, 7 p.m.

Grand Prix (John Frankenheimer, 1966)
Friday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 30 at 3:45, 7 p.m.

Eric Henderson is a web producer and film blogger for WCCO.COM.