Michael Mann’s Collateral, courtesy of cinematographers Dion Beebe and Paul Cameron, is quite possibly the only movie to make nighttime in Los Angeles look haunting, to give it more emotion, more conflict than is usually thought of in the city. To me, Justin Gamboa, the director of photography on the fixed-gear bicycle documentary Fixation, is on the same level. Los Angeles has never looked more beautiful, and it’s pretty much impossible to make the city itself, with the cluster of buildings downtown and all those disparate areas, look like Gamboa shoots it. I’ve never seen a sunset in Los Angeles as he does it. But maybe L.A. is only beautiful when you’re whooshing by it on a bicycle with your performance cycle shoe griping the pedals as you bob ans sway down a hill.
That city of concrete dreams and uncertain hopes is one of three profiled in what amounts to a well-produced infomercial for all that’s holy about fixed-gear bicycles. Everyone interviewed loves them, which is expected, but we get the same insights over and over and over. On a fixed-speed bicycle, it’s just you and the road. You can think about anything you want when you’re on them, mull over any problems you’re having and work them out in your head while you’re riding. From L.A. to San Francisco to San Jose and back and forth, we learn of the joys and perils of riding fixed-gear bicycles, of how riders negotiate hills, of the communities that have formed from mutual love of these bicycles. One rider says that you’re “signing your death warrant in L.A. by riding,” because drivers don’t understand why bicyclists have to ride in the street and they’re not agreeable about it. And then there’s more about how awesome these bikes are. And then we go on to more shots of people riding these bikes, and finally we get to something of substance here: Bike polo. On a basketball court, with makeshift mallets, polo is played on these fixed-gear bicycles, which don’t have brakes. You’re the brakes, and if you want to brake, if you’re riding at high speeds, it takes some time to stop. But for all these riders, it’s pure freedom, and that’s evident in the inventive bike polo, which is entertaining to watch, and it makes me wonder why: Why not a full-length documentary about bike polo? Is it only prevalent in Southern California or does it go on in other states too? I would have loved to watch that instead of knowing for the umpteenth time that nothing can beat a fixed-gear bicycle, or that it’s better than driving because of the views you get of these cities.
This DVD release from First Run Features has a bonus clip made up of two deleted scenes: City Grounds in Long Beach, with more great bike footage, and then two guys named Jances and Jon biking through Los Angeles during the day and into the evening, talking about the life of bicyclists in Los Angeles. I’m not brave enough to attempt riding in L.A. at night like these two do, and they therefore attain hero status with me for incredible bravery.
Trailers are also included for Dragonslayer, Blood, Sweat + Gears: Racing Clean to the Tour de France, Dive!, and The Callers. Dragonslayer, Dive!, and The Callers show that First Run Features is once again keeping its claim strong of fostering interest in offbeat subjects.
Fixation has the potential of being a great documentary about fixed-gear bicycles, but it’s still only potential. When barely a few minutes are presented about bike polo, one can quickly see that the focus is all wrong. While there is some good attention on bicycling communities, such as 5Fix2 in Los Angeles, as well as bicycle messengers in San Francisco, it doesn’t go beyond being a hyped-up cheerleader.
