Cruising Electric 1980 is a short film that runs for just six minutes, directed by Brumby Boylston and set in a futuristic world where consumerism has reached extreme levels. The film opens with a monochrome scene of the interior of an elevator, in which an American male with a deep voice announces that the viewer has "arrived at the future," before stating the name of the film.
The action then shifts to exteriors of a shopping establishment, where we see a group of people who appear to be waiting for something to happen. The camera lingers on shiny surfaces like magazines and shopping carts, all designed to catch our attention immediately. Soon the wait is over, and the appearance of a remote-controlled car signals the start of an electric hunt for the latest and most desired products.
The camera follows the car as it navigates through the aisles, skirts round the customers, and picks its way through the products. We can see that there are competing teams, with other remote-controlled cars appearing to race with the first team. The mood is frantic, and the camera quickly picks up the pace with fast zooms and close-ups that make it hard to follow what's going on.
What becomes apparent, however, is that the film is a satire of 1980s consumer culture, fueled by the rise of the shopping mall and the boom in gadgets and consumer electronics. The message is clear, that consumers are part of a tech-hungry world, desperate to have the latest and brightest products.
Cruising Electric 1980 represents a fictional side of this culture, asking us to question how far we would go to gain the latest product. The film also questions whether this level of consumerism is a sustainable way of life. The images of the remote-controlled car, blasting along with its mission, are a visual representation of our ongoing obsession with technology, gadgetry, and consumer culture.
The film's score is a playful mixture of synth-pop, electronica, and rock, which adds an ominous and somewhat foreboding quality to the images. The jarring, 80's-era sound is abrasive and harsh, seeming to comment on the fast-paced intensity of the action unfolding before our eyes.
At its core, Cruising Electric 1980 is a playful take on our modern-day addiction to consumer culture. It offers a visual commentary on the wholesale confusion of buying things, arguing that the need for the next new thing is often driven by nothing more than a collective instinct for instant gratification. The film is a quasi-documentary that asks us to challenge our perceptions of what it means to live in a society obsessed with the latest products and features.
In summary, Cruising Electric 1980 is a commentary on the excesses of consumer culture, a fast-paced and stylistic portrayal of the modern obsession with technology and the desire to obtain the latest and greatest products. The film, although short, is a powerful statement on our society's consumer habits, asking us to question our never-ending hunger for consumption and to consider the long term impact of our actions on the environment and ourselves.
