Preceded by shorts: Red & Rosy (Frank Grow, 1989). After a drag racer's adrenal gland is removed, he becomes addicted to substitute rushes, turning eventually to a brand of full-blown vampirism. (18 mins, Color, 16mm, From the artist) "She don't seem to be breathing right," says The Driver (James Taylor), speaking not of The Girl in the back seat, but of his primered '55 Chevy. Two-Lane Blacktop is an existential road movie, where the road is reason enough and the delicately tuned engine offers a momentary glimpse of mastery. It's the job of The Mechanic (Dennis Wilson) to keep the 454-cubic-inch block precisely timed; it's the job of The Driver to keep it hugging that asphalt ribbon. These aimless Californians wander the Southwest taking on local drivers for gas money. Somewhere in New Mexico, they get tangled up with G.T.O. (Warren Oates), a middle-aged braggart with an orange '70 GTO. Soon, they are off on a cross-country dash. Hellman's starkly vaporous odyssey is about the mirage of freedom, wavering just above the blacktop in the summer heat. Together, The Driver and The Mechanic have a chance to capture that fleeting vision, if only the ram injection and home-built headers hold steady. The rootless duo of Two-Lane Blacktop is all torqued up with no place to go.-Steve Seid