MIRACLE MILE (1989) with Nick Langdon

Welcome very special guest Nick Langdon - cinephile extraordinaire and Letterboxd powerplayer. 

Follow Nick Langdon on SUBSTACK and LETTERBOXD

Chapters

• 5:08 Nick Langdon and Miracle Mile Intro
• 23:08 Wine Trivia Question of the Qeek
• 26:19 History of Miracle Mile
• 34:32 Act I - Thoughts on the Movie and Potential Wine Pairings
• 51:17 Act II - Thoughts on the Movie and Potential Wine Pairings
• 1:11:08 Act III - Thoughts before Final Wine Pairings
• 1:21:18 Dallas' Wine Pairing - Riunite Lambrusco
• 1:27:27 Dave's Wine Pairing - Bulles de Miniere Sparkling Cabernet Franc
• 1:34:24 Nick's Wine Pairing - Merth Vineyards Sangiovese 2024

Transcript

0:00

I was just going to say really quickly, I hope you didn't go into this thinking it starred Tasha Yar. That's slightly misrepresenting what the film is. Here's the thing, anything which features Tasha Yard. Fair enough, fair enough. You not entertained? He's Dave and I'm Dallas and this is Ventertainment. We have opinions on just about everything. Sometimes those opinions are spot on. Sometimes they go down easier with a glass of wine. This is entertainment, the wine and entertainment pairing podcast. Buddy to Vintertainment. This is the podcast where we pair wine with entertainment. It's as simple as that. You don't need to understand wine, you just need to have fun with it. And the understanding will come with time. And our favorite way to have fun with it. Try to consider what kind of wine matches the tone, style and aesthetic of the movie show album book or comic that you want to enjoy or vice versa. You have a wine on hand now. what kind of entertainment is going to match that style of wine. But wait, how exactly do you go about this? Don't worry, we're about to demonstrate. Just follow our leads and you'll see how there's never just one pairing that makes sense. The universe of wine and entertainment is vast, my friends, and both take years of a creator's life to make. So we highly recommend getting out of your comfort zone and experiencing as much of both as time and hell allow. Please consume both responsibly. Don't forget to get up off your ass and exercise and also drink water. And many thanks to our sponsor, curated wine shop. No idea where to begin finding a wine that pairs with your movie. That's okay. Almost literally no one does. But curated is here to help. They accept every entertainment inspired challenge and will curate the selection to match your palate. Just tell them what you're trying to pair with your budget, your preferences, and they will show you the way. Curated is a boutique wine shop on La Brea Avenue, mid city Los Angeles, founded and operated by Peeps currently and previously part of the entertainment ecosystem. They carry an ever changing, wide ranging selection of small lot artisanal wines from the known and comforting to the completely unique, whether it's reds, whites, rosés, oranges, sparklings, dry wines, sweet wines, and everything in between. They pour a themed flight Wednesday through Sunday every single week. offer tiered membership, including a curated tier of which I myself am a member. I've been a member since before we even started this podcast. This is where they curate three bottles every month to match your preferences, even when your preference like mine is to drink the weirdest fricking things that fit within the monthly price point. Curated is also the place where we will soon be hosting live and in-person wine and movie nights, the first of which is being planned for March. Technically, the first was last October. October, we did it as a bit of an experiment. It was a hit. our first this year is being planned for March, we plan to make it a night of short films by local LA filmmakers each paired with a different wine. So if you're in the LA area, keep an eye out for that. And you can do so by heading to curated hyphen wines.com that's curated dash wines.com, where you can browse all the upcoming events at the shop and also browse most of their wine selection. And while you're at it, You should also follow us on sub stack entertainment studios.com, where we'll keep you all up to date on all of our upcoming events as well as bonus wine and entertainment pairings, collabs with other writers, filmmakers and wine peeps. just posted today, the day we're recording this episode, a heated wine pairing rivalry with a fellow sub stack wine writer and fellow wine stack writer. We did episodes one through three, we each paired the best wine with each episode based on what happens in that episode, the tone aesthetic feel of that episode. And you get to vote who had the better pairing. So go to entertainment studios.com. You will find the wine pairing rivalry episodes one through three. And then from there, you can jump over to her substack the sidebar. This is Tatum West, the other wine writer that I'm doing this with. And she is posting episodes four through six, we're both pairing on all of them. So it's kind of a co lab between the two of us. And you're going to vote on each of them. And then we're going to put the votes together and see who which wine writer takes home. the wine pairing cup. And I hope you're enjoying Heated Rivalry because that show, reckon awesome. I mean, I know it's a thing. know it's, I know you think it's going to be kind of like popular, but not good. Like Fifty Shades of Grey and or Twilight or something of that nature for the fans of Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey. So sorry, but Heated Rivalry. It's a really well done TV show. I've never read the books. I don't know how faithful it is to it, but the TV show beautifully written. It's a sincere romantic drama. If you think you're gonna like a romantic drama, this is one of the best I've seen on TV. So highly, highly recommended. Anyway, the entertainment studios studios.com for us and curated dash wines.com for our sponsor curated wine shop. And now let's get to our show and our very special guest. you everybody please welcome our very special guest today dialing all the way in from Australia from Melbourne. Sorry, Nick told me to swallow the second syllable of Melbourne. you know, had I had to I'm only following instructions. No, for real dialing all the way in from Melbourne, Australia is Nick Langdon, who in just quick intro of Nick in just the last few years, he has single-handedly kept academia exactly where it's always been, rocking zero boats, upturning not a single table, although he likes to believe he has occasionally, which is the thing that someone who has never rocked a single boat likes to say, I'm just saying. Now, he's been teaching at the University of Melbourne. He rejects, I'm sorry, he regrets, he rejects, he regrets not buying a copy of Kim Jong-il's classic work on the art of cinema while he was in Pyongyang a few years back. I would too, to be honest, because when are you going back? He's a big collector of music, mostly extreme metal CDs, of which he has over 1200. And we bonded a little bit on Discord because I have over 1500 martial arts movies. He's got the heavy metal. So, yeah, collectors, what are you going to do about it? And he once met Osploitation legend Brian Trenchard Smith, director of such not remotely classics as The Man From Nowhere, which is a pretty good one, Stunt Rock. which is really not and Leprechaun for in space, which is what it is. And BMX. Sorry to the man from Hong Kong there, not actually the- Hong Kong, not the man from nowhere. You're right. Jimmy Wang, you write the man from Hong Kong, which Nick turned me on to actually, even though I'm a martial arts fan, whenever you have the East meets West kind of movies where it's like Shaw Brothers and and uh Hammer like get together and make a movie. And I'm like, no, this is going to be so bad. I just I can't. I don't want to put myself through this. But he recommended Man from Hong Kong. And I watched it. And honestly, it's awesome. It's fantastic. It's one of the best. East meets West movies of that nature that I've seen. Brian Trenchard Smith also did a movie called BMX Bandits, which I've never seen. So who the fuck knows? But I love the title and I'll have to see it someday. And so many more. Try Googling the guy. He is well worth checking out a 90 year letterbox and see what you've seen, see what you haven't. In any event, Nick thought he was a really nice chap. And by the way, I watched we also talked on Discord about frog dreaming. which was a movie that he directed, also called The Quest, here in the States, which I remembered as a kid, and I just watched it last night because I found it on Canopy, so the thing you need the library card for, and then you get to watch it for free on streaming. um Holds up. It's a really, it's an interesting movie. The guy who wrote it wrote a lot of really interesting films as well, like Link, the ape movie, uh which I... Link is one of my all time favorite films, by the way. Love that movie. Granted, I saw it when I was like 10 years old, so was, know, you know, the audio. Phenomenal killer. Ridiculous, the quest if you're in the States, it's the quest I highly recommend looking it up on canopy. It'll give you an excuse to get a library card you slackers go get a library card. And if you're not in America, it will be called frog dreaming objectively the superior title. But you know, I understand why they changed it. We wouldn't understand frog dreaming except when you watch the movie, then you totally understand why it's called frog dreaming anyway. Now. I met Nick on Letterboxd. We've been on and off members of the CoLab, a Letterboxd club that watches one movie per week. Members rotate in putting together themed selections and we do rank choice voting for which movie wins the theme each week. I will have a link down there in the description of this episode if anyone wants to check that out because you might want to partake and join. Anyone can join. You just go to the Letterboxd uh thread and you say you want to join and... If you never get around to committing the time, okay, then you just fade away. I've honestly been on and off in recent years, I kind of pop in for a week there. This podcast has kept me so busy plus my current day jobs. So I've been mostly absent from the collab, but I always have a wonderful time when I do join. So check that out. I'll have a link down that below. And on that note, Nick, welcome to entertainment. How you doing today? Great. be here. Great to be here. It's my quest to educate the world on the correct pronunciation of Melbourne as well as and about Australian cinema too. it's great you started talking about Brian Trenchard Smith too. And just on Frog Dreaming that was actually written by a really interesting guy called Everett de Roche, who was an American who moved to Australia to work for the public service and then decided to become a TV writer. Then he became a movie writer as well. And he has written a lot of classic Australian films such as Road Games, long weekend Razorback, Patrick and Fortress to name but five. Is Fortress the Christopher Lambert? No, that's another fortress that was also filmed in Australia, but that was the one in 90s. This is a one that was done as a co-production with HBO about some terrorists who kidnapped some school children, which was 1985. 85. Okay. uh you Yeah, it sort of ties into like the Zodiac Killers threats and the first Dirty Harry movie, was about, you know, stealing, kidnapping a bunch of children. And it's like a feature length thing. And it's a fantastic film. definitely recommend that one. And look up Everett de Roche. He's a really interesting guy. I read a lot of really interesting films. Honestly, when I was watching the quest, I'm sorry, Frog Dreaming, it felt like I was like, is this based on a novel? There's something about the storytelling that felt very novel, like kids novel, even like why what we would now call a YA novel, but something like Hatchet back in the day when I was in elementary school. don't know. I don't know if they had the book Hatchet down wherever you grew up, But that was like they're all. There was always these elementary school books that are like, you know, staples of whatever, wherever you are growing up as an elementary school kid. And this felt like one of those. It felt very literary in interesting ways. And the way the monster turns out to be such it's like it's a monster, but it's and it's got a supernatural maybe element to it. then when the reveal comes and then also the slight little extra bump at the very end, don't know how I don't know how long it's been since you've seen this, Nick. But it's fresh in my mind because I just I a few years ago on the double bill with BMX bandits and that's where trench. Okay. He was introducing the films there too uh So yeah, if you look at other ever at deroach films as well You'll always find kind of they're like drama thrillers with a slight supernatural twist So if you like that, you'll probably like more of his stuff as well All right, so today Nick chose Miracle Mile released in 1988 to talk about today. Logline, a young man hears a chance phone call telling him that a nuclear war has started and missiles will hit the city of Los Angeles within 70 minutes. So why did you choose this movie, Nick? Tell our listeners why you chose it and what is your history with Well, it's interesting that you just brought up our film club, the Collab Film Club, because this actually relates to that. So in about 2019, I started really, really getting into Tangerine Dream. I actually have, I just bought a Tangerine Dream album the other day. I'm just holding that up for listeners. I have about five of their vinyl right now on the shelf. They're fantastic. Well, you're a man of taste Dallas in music as well as wine. So I was really, I think it started with like sorcerer and thief and some of the classics. I was really getting into tangerine dream. And actually you might not even remember this day. I asked you to get a copy of legends, the Ridley Scott with the tangerine dream score, because in Australia that was only ever released with the Jerry Goldsmith score. And that's still the only version that you can buy on disk here. and that's on streaming. just actually checked last night. It's on two streaming services in Australia, both of them with the Jerry Goldsmith score. That theatrical cut with the Tangerine Dream score seems to have disappeared a bit. Right, and we, think that was like the theme that we voted on Legend, it was all Tangerine Dream scores. No, it wasn't actually legend. So I put up a theme of obscure movies with Tangerine Dream scores and the winner was Shy People, the Andrei Konchalovsky canon. I hated that movie, yes. Which you did hate though, Phil. That's right. But anyway, about this time when I'm really getting into Tangerine Dream and their scores, I got into Miracle Mile because that was relates to another obsession of mine, which is Cold War cinema. So I was trying to watch like all these Cold War films. And one of which I found was the Soldier, a very schlocky uh action thriller nuclear threat movie that I also have done recorded a podcast on out of interest. And the other one was Miracle Mile, another nuclear threat movie about the Cold War with a Tangerine Dream score. So that's how I sort of approached it. And the reason that I picked it here to talk about today is not only is it a great film, but I believe it's also the only film I've reviewed on letterboxed where the director has complimented my review of his film. Very nice. And so in like 2020, Stephen to John, who was the writer and director of this one, he was both he was trying to promote a book that he'd written about his career. And he was also trying to get some interest in his website that he was building at the time. And based on what I looked at last night, he still seems to be building. I'm not sure how much progress he's made in the last five years. So we were talking about his film. And I also directed him to Alan Parker, the late Alan Parker, whose website is the gold standard when it comes to movie directors. It's got huge amounts of information and essays on all of his films. So I'm saying this to Steve DeGarnet, thanks for the great movies, but check out Alan Parker's website if you want to see how to do a movie website properly. So that's kind of my backstory with Miracle Mile. That's why I got watched the film in the first place and that's why I really want to talk about it as well. Beautiful. Yeah. And Steve Dajarn it he seems like a very patient guy as we'll get to when we discuss the history of Miracle Mile. yeah. So he might be taking his sweet time with whatever he's currently working on Dallas. What's your what's your background? Have you ever seen this movie before? Was this your first? No, not much history with this film. It's pretty sparse. I do recall one conversation with another film buff friend of mine. He and I have this sort of game we play uh passively and it's basically like degrees of Tasha Yar. If you guys are familiar with it. Okay. uh Is this like the elite version of the Kevin Bacon game? uh Yeah, basically. That's actually probably the story. The really nerdy Star Trek version. It's just in, and I remember him talking about this before, I think it was either around the time I moved to LA or before I moved to LA. But he mentioned a film that's basically sort of a love letter to mid Wilshire and Los Angeles. And if anyone watching this film knows anything about LA, this film basically takes place within about four blocks of actual space in LA. And it's called Mid-Wilshire. Everything is basically within a mile of everything else, virtually every set piece in this film. And it's beautiful and fantastic. uh he, I remember him saying it was a film that was sort of a love letter to Mid-Wilshire in Los Angeles. And it starred Lieutenant Tosh Yar with a big ass cell phone. And that is kind of the as I was watching it. Oh, shit. This is the movie he was talking about. You know, it was that that that that is my history with this film. And I am happy to say I was not disappointed by the what the fuck cinema that I was exposed to today. And yeah, that's fine. How about you, Dave? I was just going to say really quickly, I hope you didn't go into this thinking it starred Tasha Yar. That's slightly misrepresenting what the film is. Here's the thing, anything which features Tasha Yard, stop. Even even when she like takes off and leaves everyone behind for the like whole second half of the movie. It's like, well, her absence is what moves everything. So she's still a principal character even then. She has all the connects, all the connects on speed dial. Like she gets all the information. She knows all the right people. Yeah, her character is very both both. uh It's her character is confusing and interesting at the same time. You're sort of like, who is this woman? Like, why does she have these people on speed dial? And it's never they never entirely come out and really clear that up. Like it seems. But apparently when you're I think she's supposed to be a stock trader. And apparently she just she trades a lot of very important stocks or some. Yeah. um other thing that I think with her is that she mentions that her ex-boyfriend worked for the Rand Corporation. that's how she... She's got this insight into like nuclear launch status. Right. That's right. just I still feel like she had too many people on speed dial that I was like, wait, but you're not with him anymore. Like, why are they on your speed dial? That's a little Have you seen the size of her phone? Yeah, it's true. This is true. But back then, size didn't mean what it meant. I still remember one of my favorite movie moments is a rollerball with James Kahn when they walk into the giant computer that's like multiple stories of supercomputer. And the whole thing is one computer. And it's basically the size of a library. And then there's a line where they just say, this computer holds the knowledge of an entire library. library and I'm like, yeah, sure. I'm like, you had to build a library. You might as well just put books on the shelf, man. It's the same thing anyway. So yeah, I had seen Miracle Mile or sort of I had I have a memory of having rented it back in the like on DHS back in the day. Hollywood video blockbuster, something of that nature. I think I was very intrigued by the premise. And I remember struggling to keep my attention on it. I think I was too young. I think I wanted thrills. I think I wanted it to be, you know, a disaster movie. I wanted it to be volcano. I wanted it to be Armageddon. I wanted it to be, you know, I wanted that kind of like pumping. Yeah, this is like a world's ending. Let's go, let's go. And then I got this. And I was, you know, I was I was in my teens somewhere and not what I was looking for. So I think I checked out somewhere in it. have very little memory of the actual movie, I think, because I just was not paying attention to it. When Nick said Miracle Mile, I was excited because now, of course, I live I have always lived in my 17 years in Los Angeles, just on the outskirts of Miracle Mile, sometimes directly uh off to the side of it. um I am even going to to promote this episode after we're done recording a little later this week or early next week I'm going to go do a little short vertical video right in front of the Johnny's coffee shop um Because is right there and it's right there and it's still standing. So I've always Everything on that corner is still in the exact same formation and shape. Yes, yeah. So it is really interesting how much of a little photograph into the past of play of this area that is largely unchanged. They've kind of built a metro underground since then. And that's about it. Everything else was ground. it was Steve DeJarnet was saying that in the 1980s, it was kind of a bit of a run down area. I think like most of L.A., it's probably been gentrified a lot these since for sure. Kind of, kind of. It's been, it's more expensive. Still looks like shit, but it's a lot more expensive. So it is gentrified in that regard. And it's very much, it might be more commercial, I'm not sure. But for example, that Johnny's Coffee Shop, it was, we're gonna cover this in the history real quickly, but the 99 cent only store bought it. And it is, so it's a 99 cent shop and it now serves as the parking lot for the 99 cent store. So. too gentrified. Let's just put it that way. That is still where we're at in that little area. That said, there are some very expensive, expensive restaurants that have cropped up all around it, bars and whatnot that are not cheap whatsoever. But at the same time, it does look old. It looks like something a product of the past. So I, I'm sure the vibe was different back in the day. And Steve Djarne is not wrong about that. But having in the last 17 years, it's roughly had the same vibe since 2008. And that is not too gentrified. I will will put it that way. All right. Now, before we start talking about the history of the movie, we got to give a wine trivia question of the week. And I picked an Australian themed question to see if Nick has has a hope he has a hope of actually maybe answering this. But we'll see. We'll see. So my gateway wine grape back in the day was petite Sarah, a grape bred between sarah and a rare grape called pelerson that no one's ever heard about and which California now grows 80 % of the world's world's petite sarah harvest. So it's very much a California grape. However, Australia is also a significant grower of petite sarah, but they don't call it petite sarah. So what is it known as in Australia? Is it a Syracin, a cross of Syrah and Pelorisen, so Syracin. B, Durif. C, Ergonesh, or Ergonaze with a Z at the end, but you pronounce that, it's a Portuguese word, so Ergonesh. Or D, Freysa, F-R-E-I-S-A. So it is Syracin, Durif, Ergonesh, or Freysa. I'd say I'd probably rule out the last two because they're a bit too fancy for the average Australian pronunciation. So I'd actually go for A on that one would be my answer. All right. It is B, Dournef. You were close. You were close. You did chop it down to the right two. Believe it or not, Ergo Nation Fraisha are the names in Australia, but for different grapes, surprisingly enough. Apparently, you guys have good relations with the Portuguese because apparently they brought over a bunch of grapes to you, like specific. we did. And of course, we exported a lot of eucalyptus trees to them in the same way we did to California, and then they catch on fire. unfortunately, you don't understand how our trees work. Yeah. Well, it's funny. I um right now my day job, one of my day jobs is I represent wine in LA Portuguese wine in LA. So they import it to the States and I sell it to restaurants, wine shops, blah, blah. And one of our wines is aged in eucalyptus barrels handmade in Portugal. And I was always curious. I'm like eucalyptus trees in Portugal. But now I know that's cool. So it came from Australia. So seerson I made that up. It's just a made up word between the two parent grapes. Durriff is, it is named after the botanist Francois Durriff who made Petite Seurat in the first place. So they still call it Durriff in Australia and not in America. We changed the name to our own little name for whatever reason. And then you do call Tempranillo Ergonache in Australia still. um And then Frisa, or Frisa is what you call Nebiolo in Australia. I don't think you grow a lot. of any of these. think you just grow a little bit of all of them. But those are your names, apparently, when I looked it up. So all right, that has been our one trivia question of the week. And Nick, I'm going to give you half a point because you did not you didn't lower it down to the top two. Now a brief history of this film before we get to our thoughts on it and talking at length about it, just so everyone has context of where this film came from. So we have to start with an article in the L.A. Times from 1989 that states, quote, For 10 years, Miracle Mile has been a legendary script around Hollywood. It was chosen by American Film Magazine in 1983 as one of the 10 best unmade scripts. This obviously predates the blacklist and things like that. So there was no list the chronicle of the best unmade scripts, but this was sort of word of mouth said this was one of the best at that time. Bill Pashong, a professional screenplay reader for the last 10 years said it was quote, easily one of the five best scripts I've ever read, maybe the only script I've seen where I wouldn't have changed anything, unquote. And nobody in Hollywood would make it. Writer-director Steve Desjardins said, talked to everyone in the world about three times about making this picture. Part of the problem was Desjardins himself. As a young aspiring director just out of the American Film Institute, he wrote the picture for Warner Brothers and was hoping to direct it himself. But the studio wanted to make it a big picture, bigger than they would trust to a first time director, at least a first time director at that time. So. After the film spent three years in the limbo of what we call turnaround, which is basically when the studio is kind of auctioning it off for anyone to buy it from them, but you have to buy it from them. You have to give them the money they've already put into development. So at least whatever they paid to option it in the first place, you need to give them that money in order to get the rights for yourself. And Dejarne took the radical step of optioning it himself when no other studio wanted to take it. Quote. I gave them every penny I had at the time, $25,000. Then I rewrote it and they offered me $400,000 to sell it back to them." And the director turned them down. Quote, there were times when I couldn't pay my rent and I'd wake up in the middle of the night thinking I was crazy, but I had just sort of made a commitment. Unquote. Now the other problem was the script itself. Everyone agreed it was very good, but the subject matter was touchy. romance and nuclear war. Miracle Mile is about a young man played by Anthony Edwards and a young woman played by Mera Winningham who fall in love one morning only to discover late that night that maybe the world is about to end in a massive nuclear exchange. The movie has an almost surreal dreamlike quality, but Desjardin purposefully grounded the story in an intimate love story to make the possibility of the annihilation of mankind more personalized and poignant. Quote, I wanted to catch the audience off guard to make something really low key that they could relate to. They could be that person, just an average nice guy meeting an average nice girl. Now, another sticking point was the ending. Quote, certainly could have made it a few years ago if the hero woke up and it was all a dream, or they saved the day, unquote. It was precisely this uncompromising quality that attached Anthony Edwards as rising young star, best known for his role as Goose in Top Gun. Quote, scared the hell out of me, Edward said. It really made me angry too. I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe that somebody had written this. Jokingly, he called his determination to make Miracle Mile a natural penance for the militaristic Top Gun. That was something I didn't realize that he was, that he had some regrets about doing Top Gun. The film's realism is echoed in its minimalist conceit. Not only does it take place in a single 24 hour period, but it's also set in Los Angeles Miracle Mile. the Wilshire district near Park La Brea and the La Brea Tar Pits. And then of course, Johnny's Coffee Shop, which we just mentioned before, which was built in 1956 before eventually being purchased in 1994 by the Gold Family, the founders of 99 cent only stores. And it was finally closed for good in 2000, but it was often the least for filming and has appeared in movies like Volcano, The Big Lebowski, American History X and Gone in 60 Seconds. It was declared a historical landmark in 2013 and was briefly cheekily renamed to Bernie's Coffee Shop in honor of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders as the shop served as his campaign office throughout most of 2016. As a historical landmark, it still stands today. Now in any event, Helmdale Films, one of the groups behind Platoon, gave Desjardins 3.7 million to make the film as he wanted. to make it. Can I just mention on the filming company there too, a much more relevant name to mention is that they were the company that actually gave James Cameron a shot with the Terminator. He was a similar, he made like one short film in the way that Dajanette had. He was shopping this script around town. There was a lot of interest. Other people wanted to direct it. They wanted him to sell the script. He refused. And it was actually that company was it Hemdale or Helmdale? it a, it was David. Yeah, I believe. Yeah, David Hemmings, who people might know from Deep Red, the Dario Argento film, like he founded that production company there. So there and the Terminator will come back. And so I think there's a few more links back to that one, too. But it's good that these companies did were willing to give these young writer directors a shot when most of them just wouldn't. 100 % and Terminator is was an independent film is something a lot of people forget from back in the day. So and so is Miracle Mile in that regard. Now, while receiving largely positive critical reviews, though many were confounded by the tonal shifts and the dreamlike aesthetic of the piece, the film only made one point one million at the box office on its three point seven million budget and proved to be Desharnett's second but final feature film as director. Now, side note, um Nick, I'm sure you know this. What was his first film? It was a cherry 2000, which despite the title is set in the distant grim future of 2017. I assume you've seen that one. Have you seen that one Dallas? Yes, I definitely recommend it. It's a pretty crazy Melanie Griffith post-apocalyptic film about a guy who's searching for like to repair his sex doll. And he travels through the sort of post-apocalyptic, irradiated American Southwest. uh It's a fantastically uncommercial film, uh way more cult and outre than Miracle Mile, which is very mainstream by comparison. It's pretty obvious why that wasn't a hit, but those of us who love uh wacky cult cinema of the 80s, we love that film. Yeah, yeah, 100%. But it didn't do well either. So he was no longer a first time director, but he was not a successful second time director. So there were still problems getting Miracle Mile off the ground. And he has since directed predominantly TV, including X-Files, ER and Lizzie McGuire because a paycheck's a paycheck. So you got to do what you got to do. All right. Let's start talking about the film. Note. folks listening, will be spoiling the ending because you can't talk at length and fully about this film without saying, was it about the ending that no one wanted to make this film? Well, we got to talk about that. So we will be spoiling the ending. Either go watch this movie now. It has been released on Blu-ray, so you can find a physical copy if you want to find a physical copy. I say it's well worth it. do whatever you do you, but go watch the film, come back. Or I will have a chapter marker down below for act. three. And I we won't spoil it until we start talking about Act three. But my god, we're gonna spoil everything once we get that. So that's on you. If you listen to that, and you're like working out, you're not paying attention. And all of sudden, we start talking about everything at the end. So you have been warned. All right, Act one, let's start with Act one, I'm going to give a quick synopsis. And then we're to talk about Act one. Harry Washelow and Julie Peters meet at the La Brea Tar Pits and immediately fall in love. They spend the afternoon together and arrange to meet again at midnight at the coffee house slash diner she works at. However, due to a freak accident, a power failure results in Harry's alarm not going off until much later. When Harry awakes that night, he realizes what has happened and rushes to Julie's workplace arriving at 4 a.m. But she has obviously gone home. Harry tries calling Julie on a payphone. but only reaches her answering machine where he leaves an apology. Then as he walks away from the payphone, it rings again and Harry answers, hearing a frantic man named Chip urgently warning that nuclear war will break out in less than 70 minutes. When Harry asks who's calling, Chip realizes he has dialed the wrong area code. Remember when we had to do that, guys? He pleads with Harry to call his father and apologize for some past wrong before he is interrupted and presumably shot. dead. All heard through the phone call. An unfamiliar voice picks up the phone and tells Harry to forget everything he heard before disconnecting. All right. Act one, that's where we're gonna leave it off after he gets the phone call before he goes back into the shop. So Nick, when you were watching this film, if you can remember for the first time or also this time as you were revisiting it, how did this movie hit you? How does that first act It's interesting you bring up the idea of act because there is like a 20 minute act one in this film. But then of course there is no real act two and three. It's just like one 65 minute thing that happens essentially real time. And I have actually I'm interested in like real time movies and how they it's a deliberate it's like a cinematic lipogram. It's like a challenge like how much can you accomplish within a certain amount of you know real time passing as opposed to all the tricks of editing and whatever else you get. So yeah, I I think I went into this one originally relatively unspoiled. It's been a while since again, the first time I saw this one too. Famously, it was um described by the comedian Charlie Brooker as deserving a BAFTA for the biggest left turn in history. um So yeah, the opening where you've got this meat cute at the La Brea tar pits with some borrowed footage from Carl Sagan's Cosmos and Yeah, it's it is such a strange that that's like that the dreamy tone. So it's got this, this this wistful, old school kind of Hollywood, most kind of sappiness, but that's a majority of time, I don't think the film is sappy, but it is got this idealized version of meeting like the girl of your dreams and falling in love. So they start off the top, it's meeting each other, and then she goes and watches him play. uh at his gig because he's a he's a trombonist and did you get the sort of inadvertent symbolism of where they're at it that the rally to save the pan pacific auditorium speaking of local l.a land I did not. I did not. So the Pan Pacific Auditorium is a famous LA venue and it had, uh last time it was in a starring role in a movie was the 1980 disco musical Xanadu. That a two! Which clearly someone fondly remembers. Someone. Yeah, so it was a it's like an art deco icon of Los Angeles. But by the late 1980s, it was it had been shut for years. And it was being basically it was just homeless people were living in there. And that's what caused it to burn down only actually five days before the Miracle Miles US premiere. So they're at this rally to save the Pan Pacific Auditorium. But of course, they don't know that it's going to burn down in the real world. And this kind of is an inadvertent metaphor for the way the whole film goes, is you've got two people who are making all these plans for the future, but they don't know there will be no future. The whole world is going to burn down. So there's an inadvertent symbolism there with the way that the opening act works with the rest of the film. That's super cool. Yeah. Yeah, it's amazing you say that. uh Because for me, Act One is definitely sort of a leisurely little walk through a perfectly sweet little like postcard presentation of LA. It is an incredibly if you're in or around this industry, it is an incredibly meta film and script. And I know why it was so popular around town. It's because everyone got the references. Everyone knew the walk. They knew the boulevard. They knew the park. They knew it was just it was home to them. So I get why it was so uh such an intimate sort of read for a lot of the people in town um or connected to the industry. So that made sense. It also makes sense that they couldn't find anyone to actually produce it because it seems like such a very specific little film, at least act one. So uh act one for me is It almost seems like they got the Los Angeles County Tourism Board to write this film. Right. Travel. That's what it feels like. It was just like, come on, guys. But the entire time I was like, wow. So clearly the star of this film is just this mid Wilshire area of L.A. because, you know, at the onset, the characters aren't necessarily that interesting. They are sort of almost stock cliched characters. Like you said, it's the meet cute. They meet in Park La Brea, is just this live it's once upon a time, it was technically known as the most uh densely populated area in the western United States. And so it's this sort of enclave of massive buildings. It's just a really dense population. um And it's right adjacent to all the other stuff here. So ah it's it was almost saccharinously sweet. And it was had, you know, it all the cliches that you want from a good Hollywood romance. And you're right about the left turn. I call it the jackknife. It is the greatest jackknife in the history of cinema. I truly believe when you get there. uh But yeah, Act one was definitely sort of, you know, pleasant, low stakes. uh It was just about the set pieces. And as a person who loves L.A., who loves everything that is even remotely kitschy or cliche about L.A. and movie dome that has been featured in movie dome, I just absolutely loved Act one because it was so schmaltzy and ridiculously sweet. yeah, it was, I wasn't expecting much, but I enjoyed act one. about that? All right. And what were your so I know, Nick, you probably you don't really do what we do on this podcast on a regular basis, which is the whole wine pairing thing. um But did you have any thoughts? So Dallas, you first actually, what were your thoughts wine wise after getting like this far into this? What were you thinking? This is pretty straight on. is pretty sweet. This is clearly Act One is a date night Act One, right? This is a very sweet little ode to post. That's the jackknife. It is a very sweet little ode to date night cinema. You know, it is again for anyone in the industry familiar with it. It is very meta. You know, you get the La Brea tar pits, you get all the things right. So sweet wines, dessert wines. um you know, it was, it was, I wanted something to sort of compliment the suite. And so I went with something with a solid alcohol. I wanted some with solid alcohol base, a stern core, uh pretty straight on. So I had two ports uh and one was a Tawny and uh one was a Ruby. And uh if you guys are familiar with port, that's kind of the base of port. uh Although Dave does currently work with a white port, which is phenomenal, just FYI. uh But that's kind of my starting point. went with Ruby, I was leaning towards the Ruby because I needed that sort of deeper core. But yeah, how about you, Dave? Yeah. So yeah, so a dessert wine fortified with brandy. So high alcohol, high sugar. And Ruby Port's going to be fruity and red. Tawny Port, you age it a long time in a barrel. So it gets really brown and more like toffee, nutty flavors, things like that. I was thinking, I wasn't thinking sweet, but I agree with your take on Act 1, which is just, you know, when he gets the phone call and you hear what Chip has to say, everything in me believed. like, OK, no, they're not going there. Like, mean, like, yeah, that's what this night's gonna be about, but no way. This guy is crazy. Like, the guy on the phone is crazy. And then the gunshot happens and to forget everything you just heard. And that's hard, that's hard to square. That's hard to reconcile with. You're like, okay. So if he's, if this was not what it seemed, what it was on a face value, how do you explain these things? Which gives a lot of good credence to Anthony Edwards' character and the fact that he has to go tell people about this and act like it's real because Even me sitting there for a couple of minutes, couldn't reconcile how this wasn't. like, how are they going to explain that away if this isn't real? But I was still sure that they weren't going to make it real and that they were not going to go there. Yeah, 100%. So this first act, yeah, it's casual. I wouldn't say slow burn isn't the right term because it's calm and dreamlike, but things actually happen really, really fast. Like these two people fall in love. fairy tale instantly. it's like they meet and it's like boom, right, right, right, right. Yeah. So it's like it's like boom, we're in love and like so much I'm gonna come after you when the world is ending. I'm like, Whoa, geez, wow. Yeah. So You just going to say that I'll talk about my wine pairing at the end because of course I have the advantage of coming. to this for a second time. So I thought about this in advance as well. But something I thought that I might mention to Dave knowing what a huge fan of Hong Kong films you are is that something that I found watching a lot of Hong Kong movies is that they don't really have any idea of adherence to genre in the way that Hollywood does. In the Hollywood model, genre is like a rigid almost box like a romance is a romance, a comedy is a comedy, a drama is a drama, a thriller is a thriller kind of there can be some overlap, but usually it's a one single thing. Whereas when you're watching a Hong Kong movie, it might start out as like a gritty crime drama, but then like the sappiest romance you've ever gushed over could break out or it might turn into like a bit of a wacky comedy. And there's just this genre of fluidity to coin a term that you don't often get in Hollywood. And I think that might be one of the reasons why Miracle Mile struggled to connect even though people love the script. And as Dallas noted, it's very sort of classic Hollywood and very LA centric and you know, things that appeal to people. But because you do have such of this hard left turn or jackknife as Dave calls it, where it starts as one thing and turns into something completely different. That's the challenge I think people have. Whereas watching a lot of Hong Kong cinema and then more recently getting into like Korean cinema. That's more kind of what you expect. I just went and saw the new Park Chan Wook film. And that starts off as like a drama and turns into this whole other thing. But you expect that by now with park, especially in a lot of Korean films. I'm like, I'm going to go on a ride here. I'm very happy to be taken on an adventure. Yeah, yeah. And I think you're right in terms of like, can have a disaster movie and there will be a romance embedded somewhere within that. Like Hollywood loves their role. If we have a hero, they're going to have a romantic interest and we're going to... Your favorite from the 1990s Armageddon, just on your point, you start the rock tumbling towards the earth. So they're setting up the disaster. It's not like it comes out of nowhere. Well, and also this movie actually, I think why we call it a jackknife or a tonal shift or whatever we want to call it is it sets the first 20 minutes as just a romance. It leans so heavy into this is a when Harry met Sally Los Angeles set, you know. When Harry met Julie Harry met Julie and but there's no real comedy in it. So you're like, okay, it's not funny. So it's just kind of slice of life weirdly slow. But then everything so getting back to the whole like everything happening fast. There's the not just falling hard for each other. Then there's the sleeping waking up too late. It's the magic hour of the night and heading into the city in this in this magical type way where everything, everything's moving at a pace where Nothing's quite, nothing feels quite real at that hour of the night, right? Everything's a little heightened. Everything's a little different than what you're too is that this might mean more to you guys who live in LA, but the way that it always comes across on film is it's usually very busy. There's always traffic. There's always something happening. The thing about this film is that it's very quiet. Yeah, it said it like four or 5am in the morning. It's very quiet. It's very empty. It's very sparse. There's a lot of negative space that Dajana uses within the frame. And this is not usually the way that LA is depicted on film. I think LA usually, when people think of LA, they think of these sort of urban centers that you think of when you're considering New York, right? You get Times Square, which is always busy. You get Hollywood, generally in film, people associate Hollywood Boulevard or Sunset Boulevard uh with the city. And that's generally why it's, mean, that those areas are. pretty often busy even late into the night. But this part of town, not so much. This is just sort of, you know, it's it's a middle of nowhere. One point real quick. I think the reason two things here. One, I think the reason this script was so popular again around town was because of that jackknife, right? because it was so sudden and so not off putting but so sort of alarming or arresting. But then the problem comes in with the Hollywood machine trying to then how do you market that based on what you just saying, Nick, about the sort of genre specific because it honestly is all funneling into sort of marketing. Right. They figure out which which films are going to sort of be. popular based on sort of the where they fit in terms of marketing and and I think this film was so difficult to kind of then sell which makes so much sense when you figure out that no one To the point I was young. I rented it thinking it was like a disaster movie. Like, yeah, I got I had the wrong idea from the log line and the cover, which shows him like on top of the car while the like crazy stuff's going on and the fires are burning, um which we'll get to. just think about that conversely, if you went in, you took your partner and you're like, this will be a great date movie. Really romantic like you go, what the fuck's happening? Yeah. And I will say just to go back to the L the way LA is depicted on screen, it's always during the day because that's what makes LA LA the sun, the palm trees, that sort of like beautiful weather and climate you it's New York you see at night all the time and New York is busy at night. But I can tell you living in LA for 17 years. Dead. Yeah. And everything closes at like, I mean, we have our clubs, we have our bars that like stay open till two, three or whatever, but they're few and far between. And most things close at like nine in LA. It is not New York. It is not a city that never sleeps. LA sleeps. And so doing night shoots and showing LA in that magic hour of night when there's just a handful of people scattered about that changes everything. So yet to wrap up my thing, I was just thinking, OK, how about a wine you fall instantly in love? and nothing that challenges you, but something easy, something like uh when Harry met Julie, like I'm like, they meet and it's like, you don't have to think about it. You don't have to, well, we got to get to know each other. Well, let's do a second date. Let's like try this out. It's like, you meet each other, you talk for five minutes and you're like, you that is we are we are we are a done deal. And so in that first 20 minutes, because it was such a romance, and I was pretty sure from that phone call, I was like, no, no, no. This is all gonna be, it's gonna be a fun, it's gonna be a wild night, but no, no, no, we're not going there. That was my original thinking was to keep it all light. So, all right, act two, let's get into act two. oh So Harry, confused and not entirely convinced of the authenticity of the information like me, wanders back to the diner and tells the other customers what he has heard. As the patrons scoff at his story, one of them, a businesswoman named Landa, which is Dallas's gal, places calls to politicians in Washington and finds that they are all suddenly heading for quote, the extreme southern hemisphere, unquote. She verifies that the launch codes Chip mentioned are real and convinced. oh on, hold on, hold on. okay. Well, see, this is my thing with her character, right? Go ahead. You I was just gonna say like her boyfriend is getting his security clearance revoked. immediately, immediately that moment, I'm not kidding you. I jumped up and went, what the fuck did I just hear? And I had to rewind it. It was like, okay, that's the ride we're on. Okay, I'm here, fine. All right, go on, Dave. That was just, went to sort of state that that was a moment that I physically had to jump up and rewind. So land convinced of the danger immediately charters a private jet out of Los Angeles International Airport to a compound I know I know this character to a compound in a region in Antarctica with no rainfall I mean like this is this is the heart weirdly. This is the hardest part to believe of the thing anyway Yeah, most uh when the owner refuses the owner of the coffee shop refuses to make any stops on the way to the airport Harry, unwilling to leave without Julie, arranges to meet the group at the airport and jumps from the truck, briefly knocking himself out but regaining consciousness long enough to pull a carjacker and petty thief named Wilson over, hijacking his stolen car and bringing Wilson himself along for the ride. When Wilson figures out that a disaster is coming, he urges Harry to allow him to briefly stop and pick up his little sister, Charlotte, an environmental protester who does activism work near nuclear power plants nearby. While attempting to pump gas, Wilson and Harry are stopped by the police. Wilson spills gasoline on the police to get away, but doesn't expect it when one policewoman fires her gun, accidentally setting herself on fire. Her partner and the gas station owner are also both killed in the process. Giant explosion. Harry and Wilson are both guilt ridden, but continue to flee, hijacking the new abandoned police cruiser. Harry is able to locate Lucy and Ivan, the parents of Julie. as well as a sleeping Julie passed out from having taken a Valium. Can I just say I didn't catch that she had taken a Valium. So this next sequence really confused me when she's on a shopping cart and he's just like, and I'm like, this is so dreamlike. I'm like, this can't be real. How is she not waking up anyway? When Wilson abandons them to search for Charlotte, uh and Wilson abandons them all to search for Charlotte. Harry places Julie in a shopping cart wrapped in a rainbow Afghan blanket and hurries to reach the helipad at the top of the mutual benefit life building a tall financial skyscraper built where land is said to wait for a ride to the main airport. As Julia wakens, leaving the cart in the Afghan behind she innocently believes that Harry is taking her on a hot air balloon ride. And she's thrilled. But Harry is saddened when Lucy and Ivan are shown to have rekindled the romance her parents were kind of not talking to each other for a long long time, but decide to drive away. 15 not a long, long time, 15 years and they live in the same building. Remember, long, time of not talk. That's a long time to not talk to each other. Yes, I'm saying, but not just a long time would be okay, two years, but 15 years. Got it. Got it. Got it. Okay. So you're a grader. um So she sees they've rekindled the romance, but the parents refuse to go with them, wanting to die together. Though Julie believes they just wanted to spend quality time together. She still doesn't realize what's happening. That's where I'm going to end quote unquote, act two or about halfway through the wild and crazy night. So thoughts on act two, gentlemen. you want to start us off with your thoughts? Yeah, just to go back to the coffee shop too. We talked about Dallas's favorite Tasha Yar, but there's such a great like lineup of both characters and actors in that coffee shop that you of almost want to spend more time with them too. So you've got the drunk guy who's there who's played by Earl Boehm, who was Dr. Silberman in the Terminator movies. Once again, we will come back to the Terminator films. The cook is Robert De Koy, who was famously the the pimp antagonist in coffee, one of my favorite blaxploitation films, if you've not seen coffee, check it out. Pam Grier is amazing in that one. He was also the the desk sergeant in Robocop. That's where people might have seen him from. Yeah, he's the cook who just like, you know, he's like out of there, we won't take any shit to you've also got one of Tim Burton's favorites are Oland Jones. She plays the waitress, the sort of gothy one too. So you can tell that she's in the Burton crowd. And then One, you've also not quite at the there, but you've got, uh what's his, McKelsey Williams. Michael T. Williamson. Wilson. The guy in the stone card. to pronounce his name. Michael T. Yeah, he was of course famously, uh Baba in Forrest Gump. But that's shit film. so yeah, uh just like I liked the whole like ensemble that they had there at that late night diner. And if they're all having like meals and coffee at four o'clock in the morning, it feels like they all know each other. So you've got this kind of interesting crew that Agreed Dallas, what are your thoughts on Act 2 here? Oh, let's see. Again, the wonderful jackknife moment as I like to call it. was initially I did have the same response and reaction. I was like, oh, OK. Well, clearly the guy on the phone is in an insane asylum and he's having a moment calling random numbers and just sort of acting out. And that was my initial sort of thought. was like, Is that before or after the gunshot? This is, uh even with a gunshot, you know, it's not difficult to make a gunshot noise. mean, you know, it's not difficult to make a gunshot noise, at least in film. uh Again, it was hard to reconcile. It's hard to reconcile. Again, I think as a reader reading this script, the head scratch moments makes this a fucking phenomenal read. We talk about this all the time, like in terms of scripting and writing and world building, like the read for me is most important. And I think this script must have been a fucking ride to read. so yeah, think the sort of out of the blue kind of turn really just propelled us into this kind of vortex of what the fuck, which started with uh the the diner. um And immediately in the diner scene, I started having this thought. This felt like a play. uh This entire script felt like I wonder if there was a core idea of a play that started here, because I could see that. I doubt it, but the dialogue is very- I doubt it. But again, feels like being a writer, sometimes I'll write a play and then it's better as a film or vice versa. You go back. It's an idea you sit with for a long time. Just also. clear Armageddon with helipads and skyscrapers and that's the beauty of plays day That's the beauty of plays, you can do anything in a play. on that idea too is that also the real time element that's something that would probably more associate with a stage production than a film because you say, okay, we've built this set. How much drama can we have within this confined location within the real progression of time? Right, that sort of, those parameters make it a really intense sort of play live experience because your audience is quite literally there with you. But, so I did have that thought initially. was like, oh, I could see this being a play, a really sort of abstract sort of play. it made me like... the ride even more, which I did not think I was going to do. I was a little surprised that I enjoyed it even more once it got to uh the diner scene. um so this is kind of where things begin to sort of agitate and sizzle for me and made me think of something more fizzy or frizzante, which is if I ever have children, I'm going to name one of them frizzante. ah There was this for Santa uh Rosa, which uh we had Dave at a local little wine shop here, not far from me. And I got a bottle and uh I started thinking about that, but it was like, I'm not sure this doesn't have enough weight to it because it's clearly after this sort of Jackknife moment, we're getting into some deep territory here. I'm like, okay, this is where that kind of Okay, this is the existential crisis coming. All right, so, uh okay. So then I started thinking, uh in terms of that agitation of that fizz, and like we're saying, and then landed on, of course, Lambrusco. If you guys are familiar with what we've been doing around here for the last few months, one or more of us has been raving about uh Lambrusco at various times, this very specific Lambrusco. And uh Yeah, so that's where I decided to sort of go next and leave the ports behind. Yeah. OK. All right. So, yeah, I I was still I was just sticking to my guns of doubting that this was actually happening. um So this act, too, was really all about doubt to me because Anthony Edwards start to tell starts to tell everyone what's going on. They start taking extreme actions, um which causes death, destruction as it starts to really like snowball. I was like, oh Jesus, what if he's wrong? Like he'll have all these lives on his conscience. um And to be fair, you still have to be like, well, but do you hold, do you keep this information to yourself? Even if you're wrong, what if you're right, right? And so that is the conundrum of just that doubt and like, what do you do and how much of whatever then happens is or is not your fault. And I was in this little like, like central zone of like, which way do you go? whether it's going to wind up being a real thing or whether it's not, you're kind of stuck in the same Catch-22 situation of you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. is this a wine? So then I went from like, you know, a wine that you easily fall in love with to like, is this a wine of regret? Is this like a wine of like pure uncertainty? And yet Anthony Edwards character rarely falters, right? He keeps taking action, whatever the consequences. Solid core. Right. Even though he himself does it multiple times, like sometimes he's by himself and he just says it out loud, like, what if this isn't happening? Like, what if I'm wrong? What if this isn't happening? But he wants it to be a relief that it's not going to happen. So it's not hitting him like a burden, at least not in the moment of this night. It might hit him as a burden later down the line if this didn't happen. But I didn't know what to think or feel, probably much like the characters. Um, so you just, you keep moving forward without knowing what's right, without knowing how to fully deal with such a situation. So a wine that makes you feel uncertain. So I went all the way from kind of the polar opposite of my last thought, which was something you easily fall in love with no thought, no struggle, no challenge to like something that just keeps you constantly off guard, contemplative, but not quietly. So like he just challenges you at every step. Um, so I was starting to lean towards that. polar opposite. I'm just gonna say I'm so happy to hear that the film works for you. And of course, that's the main dramatic thrust of it too, is that Yeah, do you believe this based on the word of one man as you can see, like, Tasha, yeah, she like, straight away buys it completely starts acting puts that whole thing into motion. Sorry, I should land was character. But and then other people they they think he's just talking shit. And and that's very human response as well. So it's like, like people sometimes just shut down, or they're not willing to hear like the these such bad news. Apocalyptic bad news is really underselling it like apocalyptic tidings, you know, let's just say Well, it wasn't for Tasha, our character, the rest of the coffee shop really would have been done that right. They only start getting it seriously because she makes those phone calls and they hear her responses. And she's definitely that character where it's like confirm, like make take the action to confirm one way or the other, or at least confirm enough that you're willing to take action. She does. It is. And everyone else hears that and sees that. And then, boom, everyone sold on the. oh this this film, uh when did War Games come out 85? Okay, so this film sits on the same cosmic shell for me as War Games. And uh what it sort of does is it gives you this full spectrum of the possibilities if this information were to sort of land in your lap one day, you walked into a diner, you had this information, and you would have to spew it out and get as many data points as possible to see where you would actually land before you made a decision. And I think with the Tasha your character Orlando, she does come with that sort of, um you know, that sort of right did I say land oh yeah land up yeah but uh she does come with a certain an air of veracity is a wrong word an air of sort of um respect authority authority as a place authority not even she's got the she's got the uh she's looking at the Notes version of Gravity's Rainbow. And she's very sort of acute in her responses and that acute sort of nature. Unfortunately, we do tend to respond to very favorably. We want someone to tell us what is what and what to do and how to feel and how to think in these moments when something as ridiculous as a nuclear bomb is headed straight for us. So it. Well, and to Nick's point about her reading the Cliff Notes of Gravity's Rainbow, like, that's the point of her character, Yes. As quickly, like, no nonsense, as quickly as possible, get it done. Yes. And of Gravity's That's right. is a novel about nuclear war. Right. Yeah. Right. But the cliff notes, she's not reading gravity's rainbow. She's not. Right. She's not. I'm an 80s business woman. I've got my phone. I've got my shoulder pads. I don't have time for a 700 page, you know. We have time for the Cliff Notes. And that's essentially what this film is. It is one beautiful little Cliff Note. She has time to take in the information, which is what she's doing about this event and this moment. She's like, give me the information. I will then go take action. Nothing else matters to her. That is her personality and character. Lieutenant Tasha. Yeah. She learned it well. um And actually, interestingly, because this film was filmed in 87. So I think it would have been around the time that she actually was on Next Generation. Also on Dallas's Dallas's point about um war games, something that Steve Janet said is that the film was almost a bit too late, because it came out in the premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 88. But then its US release was March of 89. So by this time you've got the Cold War kind of winding down. He said if it had come out early around the time of like war games or the day after in like about 83, it probably would have struck a chord more with the public. This was like, you know, the peak of like the sort of Reagan paranoia about the Soviet Union. But again, by his second term and into the George H.W. Bush administration. you're dealing with like Paris Troika and Gorbachev and like the Berlin Walls would come down later in 89 and things are winding down. the film like I think Dave brought up the pretty mediocre box office. But if it had come out like six years earlier when the script was the hottest thing around town, it could have been a hit. Yeah. with some marketing with a very, very large interest in marketing though, because I would love to see the marketing roll out for this film, because I imagine there were places where it was marketed as a sort of romance or at least visually uh in terms of the aesthetic. And then other places where it was this hardcore sort of nuclear drama, because it is just so disjointed in an odd way. uh The only thing I will say I doubt it was marketed because I think to Nick's point, you can't market this as a romance because it's not enough. Like the actual playtime doesn't deal with romance. It's a great romance though Dave. Romance also yeah, yeah. I'm not arguing that. I'm not arguing that. She disappears for the whole middle of the movie, right? That's not what the movie is predominantly focused on, even though it's the core. That's the it's what it's the emotional core. But it's not you just thought we're just following Anthony Edwards through almost all of Act Two until he even when he goes to get her, she's asleep. And then he like carts her around dead asleep. So the romance is like at the beginning and at the end. romance is in his stretch most show most. So. But I think that would be to Nick's point the more disappointing thing would say this is like a proper romance and then you get this Versus you say it's a disaster movie at which one. It's a weird disaster movie, but it is a disaster movie You don't really even see the disaster but this gets back to what I was saying about like the way that Hollywood studios work. It's not only that they've got this sort of these like genre boxes, they put everything in but that's how the marketing works too. Okay, this is how we market a comedy. This is how we market an action movie. This is how we market a romance, you know, just also like, since we're getting into act three, if you watch a lot of 70s films, you'll know that they love downer endings. But down to endings were really out of fashion by the 1980s. So that's another thing that's kind of when maybe he started writing this a decade before it was released. Bummer endings where everybody dies were in vogue, you know. True, I do think downer endings, you know, because they've done a lot of things like whenever they do a test audience, right? And they'll like ask them about the ending like it has a downer ending and they're gonna test the ending but then they'll ask them did you like the ending audiences don't answer that as though Was it the right ending like no, no, no, no, cuz a lot of the times audiences will be like, no, no, no That was the right ending. That was the best but I didn't like it because it was sad right and so They're answering it truthfully, but they don't mean that they want it different. They just mean it's not an ending meant to be liked, to be meant to make you feel good. executives always take that to mean they got to change it. Yeah. What you're saying is that they like the characters and they were so invested in the drama that that's the reason they're having that response. But like you said, then studio executives, they take two plus two and get five and decide they need to change it. Act three, Here we go. Harry and Julie are horrified to be greeted by two unnamed business women with Arctic clothing and machine guns. Who are these, Nick? One of them is Jeanette Goldstein. There you go. There you go. From Cameron, at least Cameron, but not necessarily the Terminator. She was in Terminator 2. She was in Terminator 2 and Near Dark with Catherine Bigelow and the aliens. Yeah. So from that camp, from that camp. But when these two women arrive, Julie finally learns the truth about the impending apocalypse. Mike, a businessman from the coffee shop drunkenly awaits top the building for Landa to arrive unaware that she has already left and probably isn't coming back for him or the other coffee shop patrons desperate to reach the airport himself and not having a car. Harry finds a gym rat at the local health club who offers to fly the helicopter for a fee, hold on, provided that his girlfriend Leslie is allowed to come along. Brian Thompson, one of my favorites, one of my all. To the to- he's the other punk that isn't Bill Paxton at the beginning. He's the punk who actually gets his guts ripped out by the T-800 at the start of the Terminator. one of those Rector Hauer faces. ah He is also the the cult serial killer leader in the Sylvester Stallone Cobra movie, a movie I hate with all my heart except for Brian Thompson. He is the best. He's the head of the night slashes. um And he's also in this an amazing, like erotic thriller called In the Cold of the Night. It's a dreadful film, but it's really, really interesting that I also recorded a podcast episode on. um And one other fun fact about Brian Thompson, his father was Steve DeGionnett's high school geography teacher. That's right. He said that in an interview. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Real quick. this was the only role where nepotism played a part. Okay, really good Dave you said uh Harry finds a gym rat. In fact, what happens people spoilers. He finds a gym which is packed with people at 4am on the Miracle Mile packed with classes in session, and they are photo magazine ready. He runs through this place screaming for a was a gun. or a helicopter pilot at 4am walks through a door and the guy who just happens to overhear it goes, do it. I had to stand up and applaud. I had to stand up and applaud that moment. It was the best thing I've seen in a very long time. This film is now currently in my top 10 for that moment alone. All right, go on, Dan. Well, I do also want to say Brian Thompson, the second Mortal Kombat from 1997 Mortal Kombat Annihilation. He is the main villain in that one. And he's also the best thing in that movie. um that. things in that movie. There were. OK, so I know know uh Nick, you're aware that I've started doing like commentaries for Arrow releases. I just did Mortal Kombat 1995 and Mortal Kombat Annihilation 1997. I found a lot to enjoy in the sequel, honestly, uh this time around. But nevertheless, Brian Thompson is still just the best thing in it because he always knows what kind of movie he's in. Let's just put it that way. was my thing about in the cold of the night too. Yeah, he especially in the B movie realm. He's got like a peerless B movie credentials, but he he is at he's got like that face like Dallas just said, it's sort of like he's like a sort of roided up Rutger Hauer. Yes. He he he he's correct for the for that genre or that sort of, know, that mode like he knows what time it is like you just said. And one last question. Is Leslie a guy? Leslie's a guy. Who's the guy? We don't know. we all we can all interpret it based on our own predictions. I go connected. Possibly, possibly. But yeah, you're right. We never see Leslie because um he asked. He says that, actually, no, the synopsis does say provided that his girlfriend, Leslie. OK, could still be a guy could just call him just saying. Right. OK, true, true. OK, so that his girlfriend, Leslie, is allowed to come along. ah But unfortunately, Julie. also tried to find a pilot on her own. And in the moments it takes for Harry to find her, Los Angeles descends into violent chaos with numerous deaths and injuries following. There is no confirmation that nuclear holocaust is real. And Harry wonders if he has sparked a massive false panic in the example of Chicken Little. However, when he uses a phone booth to contact the father of the man who had called him. using the number of the booth and the area code the man was trying to use, he reaches a man who says his son Chip is a soldier. Harry tries to pass on the message he was given from the sun, but the man hangs up before Harry finishes. Julie and Harry meet up again in the elevator of the mutual benefit building. Can I just say, though, Harry, one thing that bothered me so much in this movie, Harry is so easily distracted by fucking everything. He's supposed to get to the fucking airport with Julie and he's like, I saw the pilot because I saw the back of some guy in a leotard and it might be the pilot and I'm gonna run after I'm like, what are you doing? Go to the top of the fucking building. Get on the heli. Like stop getting distracted. I don't know if that bothered anyone else. To be fair, it's a stressful situation. There's a lot going on. There's a lot. True. When they get there to the top of the building to the helipad, any doubts about a false alarm are eliminated when a missile can be seen streaking across the sky. Color me a little bit surprised even then, I will say. Harry and Julie expect to die there when the helicopter pilot arrives, the Jim Rat from earlier that morning. He is bleeding heavily and has appeared to have lost Leslie to the violence in the streets below. but he declares that he intends to keep his promise and rescue his two new friends. After the trio lift off from the roof, several warheads hit and the nuclear electromagnetic pulse from the detonations ruin the controls. The already injured pilot, dazed and bleeding to death, is unable to save the helicopter and it crashes into the La Brea tar pits where this all began. The pilot is killed instantly on impact, but Harry and Julie are left alive and panicked as the helicopter's cabin fills with natural asphalt tar. which will drown them both. And I will say, if no one, for those who live in Los Angeles and have been to the Los Angeles carpets and have seen the pool of this, it is kind of a mini nightmare everyone has who sees this thing. You kind of envision it a little bit, it is true. Julie is horrified by the chances that they had to escape if not for the various events of the past few hours. Harry tries to comfort her by saying that someday their fossils will be found. and they will probably be put in a museum or maybe they will take a direct hit and be turned into diamonds. Julie, by accepting her fate, calms down and takes comfort in Harry's words and the movie fades out as the tar fills the compartment. A final explosion seems to imply a direct hit has taken place, killing the characters. Thoughts on Act 3. You go first, Nick. Oh, absolutely love it. just like there is this almost like a switch that goes off. It's obviously not just Harry who like the word gets out, for example, when we get the return of what's his character's name Williams, he's brought his sister in the stolen cop car. the cops have been, you know, after shooting them and showed that they they die in that department store. And then just when Julie and Harry are about to surrender all the cops drive off. So words getting around what's going on. It's no longer just them as well, too. And then you've got that incredible with like the like the most LA thing where there is your your city folk Angelino's whatever they called their response to everything is get in their car and start yelling at people as well. So and they cause a massive traffic jam that dooms them. So there's a very LA way to go. There's also a guy who's like crushed under the wheels of a car holding variety magazine, which also might be the most LA kind of death possible. Yeah. So you've got this like Dallas had a great term earlier. He called it a vortex of what the fuck. And it really just accelerates in again, I there isn't really a third act in this film. It's all like one long build from like the phone call in the coffee shop. But you've got this spiraling chaos as like word gets out and people try and flee the city. And that's counteracted with this tragic romantic ending where as Dave just mentioned, they our couple get hit by the shockwave of a nuclear explosion and knocks the helicopter down and they crash into the labrador tarpets and they sort of end up and will spend eternity back where they began to. there is a little bit symmetry there. They'll find us here someday. ah There is also a alternate uh take on that ending where they even show after it fades out. There's like these two little animated diamond graph like graphics that spin onto the screen and like fade out into the distance. It's like they became diamonds and that they didn't go with that. But that is that is something they created to maybe put in the movie. I suppose to try and maybe like make the ending a little less bleak. Little happier. that. I see that. Oh, they're together in for eternity. huh. It's minerals. Exactly. We're all together. That is the point. So yeah, full circle. For sure. This film start or ends where it starts with the labrea tarpids, which again, is so LA and is it just it's just it's wonderful and kitschy and ridiculous and again it is the center of that vortex of what the fuck that this film sort of you know that premise of of act two that promise of act two uh it is full circle delivery on that moment uh I will say this uh there is a scene of the chaos scene you spoke about Nick when The cars have all crashed and he jumps up on top of car and we stared down Long Avenue. Yeah, that scene. And he stares down the Long Avenue and it is just pure utter chaos. It's kind of the ubiquitous scene you get. Usually it's set in like Times Square, which kind of poster moment is, I will say that moment is punching above its weight because I actually paused on that scene. just aesthetically, whoever designed that is, that was just beautiful. It was real and sort of bleak but also cinematic at that moment was just fucking beautiful. um say this is how this is how the world ends in LA, not with a bang or a wimper, but with a traffic jam. With the traffic jam and a copy of variety in your hand. Yes, that's exactly how it ends. ah But um it just kind of works. just it's it's a crazy little film. It's the perfect blend of what the fuck and awe. ah And yeah, it really is. It's that's kind of how I walk away from this film. As Dave knows, that's Generally, it's kind of a sweet spot for me. If it's a little quirky, a little left to center, you know, it takes a little sort of energy to kind of truly digest and accept. uh I'm probably going to be entertained at the very least. And again, I always wait to try. And I love just the try of this film to make a film that is essentially two films kind of not even merged or hybrid in any way, just sort of glued together. is wonderful in my eyes. So, wide-wise, I decided to go with, like we said, Lambrusco, and it kind of sums up the WTF and the awe of this film. Kind of sums up my relationship with Lambrusco as of late. uh Because, as you guys can probably guess by now, those of you who have been around for the last few weeks, I went with really needy people. Re-uniti-lam- And please spell that for our listeners because if you've never seen it spelled out before, it's not spelled how you would think. But trust me, you were any way phonetically you write it, you're going to get this return. It is R-I-U-N-I-T-E. Re-U-nite. R.I. Unite. That's right. R.I. Unite. That's right. Just like, if you want to unite uh a sappy uh romantic comedy and a post apocalyptic pre apocalyptic drama, you just kind of glue them together. And Dave and I recently discovered that Reunite uh contrary to everything I'd ever known or heard about it in media is actually really satisfying. uh And um yeah, that's my choice. Argue with your mom. or your dad, they probably remember reuniting. It was essentially the the best selling wine from like 1976 imported wine to us and from 1976 to the year 2000. Get those numbers guys. That is insane. And it is dirt cheap. This was $5.99 on sale retail $9.99. You're welcome. ah It is I think 8 % ABV 8 or 9 um and just so satisfying like this film. It is something I did not think I was going to enjoy ah It's something that seemed ridiculous to me, but ah I'm glad you brought it to my attention at least Nick and I'm glad we found Reunity and this Lambrusco when we did a few weeks ago. That's my speech A months ago, a months ago. guess. And time time. Yeah, we're not. Yeah, yeah. Real time. Real time. It's been a while. But I will say we paired it before with a independent horror film called Dead Mail. Dead, dead, M.A.I.L. And this actually shares some aesthetic similarities with Miracle Mile. Actually, now you say that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I kind of understand where you're going with that one. I kind see it. By the way. not often if you're in her to that. Have you done an episode or just Okay, we did. I'll check it out. Yep. Check that one out. it was it's on Shutter here in the States. don't know if Shutter is international. OK, so someone probably has it elsewhere, but yeah, I mean, it debuted in like Toronto Film Festival. So I'm sure it's out there somewhere, um but it's a period piece of the 80s as well. And these directors. They shot this on like a digital red camera and somehow made it look like an 80s. Like I thought it was an uncovered gem from the 80s. it's not retro. It's not like it's trying to be. It just kind of is. it's a really well done um and very low key in its way like Miracle. also shot in and around Los Angeles. That's true. It's not supposed to take place in Los Angeles, but they did shoot it all in and around. And then it's supposed to take place in what Indianapolis? Yeah, I think. Yeah. Is where it's supposed to take place anyway. um So, yeah, the ending of this one, I do think, you know, I was surprised that they actually went there. But at the same time, by the time it was happening and the film was fading, I was like, yeah, this wouldn't have worked any other way. Like there's no other way to actually end this without it being really forgettable, without it just being like, okay, we went through all that, but for what? It had to, I think this again, is it a happy ending? No. Do you, does it give you warm fuzzies? No. Is it, is it a good end to the romance? Yeah, kinda in a way, but it's very sad. It's traumatic in its way, but it is the ending. I can see why the director stuck to his guns. This movie, for all that it did not leave a mark in 1989 in theaters, I think the reason this movie finds the fans that it has found since then is because it is of a piece and where it goes with that ending, that's what makes this thing truly work as a whole. So we were actually on the same page with this one, Dallas. I selected a red sparkling. So I chose a wine. Dallas and myself sipped this past weekend. The uh Chateau... I got the bottle here. I got the bottle here. I'll see. Let's get it in my little narrow window there. The boulier des minières. Chateau des minières. This is a 100 % Cabernet Franc from the Loire. And this thing is um lightly... Kind of. It's pet... It's quote unquote pet net style or petulant natural, which is a lightly fizzy style. So kind of like really needy again. Although they did put a proper champagne cork in this, not just a little crown cap. So it was, it was actually decently sparkling. Like it somewhere in between like the big champagne style and otherwise, but a red sparkling is going to be something that's got it's fruity. It's eccentric. It's tart, slightly smoky, earthy, gently bitter. um It's complex. medley of flavors and textures. um Dallas went for the super easy going reunity. But I say go for the bolder, dry, sparkling red thing that is again, going to challenge you. I think I had to go for the challenge something heavier, weightier, more challenging, more interesting. Fun fact, I also paired the same exact bottle on our sub stack on in our in our subscriber chat with Catherine O'Hara. Yes, who passed away this weekend sadly and I've had I paired it with her entire Style of her sense of humor her style of comedy because she is also Frankly eccentric fruity tart slightly smoky earthy and gently bitter in everything That's great description of her. I love it. I love it. I agree. I agree. But this also goes to show that a single wine makes more than one great pairing for different reasons. But but also for the same reasons it describes her set style of comedy. then in this movie, I think this is the style of wine that really sits with you while you're going through this dreamlike, crazy, but kind of heavy movie. It's weirdly weightless and heavy at the same time. So you've got the effervescence of the bubble. just sorry just really quickly that's I think also what to bring it back to where we started what tangerine dream brings to this. Dreamy but it's also it's like tense there's this urgency. There's pulsation to the score as well. It's the reason when you listen to one of their sort of marquee songs or albums, um it's haunting. There is a haunt to it as well. It's also really satisfying. it's just you're right, a very similar sort of response to Tangerine Dream. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So that's my pairing, Nick, what did you go with? Just before I sort of segue into the pairing as well, just, um, you just also loop back, Dave, you talked about some of the production elements too. And I'm sure you would have read that the, when in the time when this was being pitched, just like a studio film, when they wanted to John it to sell the script to be directed by someone else. And they were hoping to get guys like Nicholas cage or Kurt Russell to play the, um, the Harry character, which obviously would have been a very different film. Yeah. Um, and also if you think, if you, if you can imagine that a version of this with them in the lead, you know, that they would have replaced mayor winning them with someone like a Meg Ryan or a Phoebe. You know, one of like, you know, you go, we need someone hotter for our lead. to have ready. Yeah, whoever was like the late 80s. But I like the fact that this is a very kind of even though it's like the nuclear destruction of the world. It's also as think Gala said, like kind of low key, which is one of the real the film. It's accessible, right? It's actually very accessible. m very accessible. so you've got this like Anthony Edwards is believable as this dorky guy who plays the trombone. Absolutely. And Amir winning him is believable as a waitress in the way that like those Hollywood glamorous actresses we just talking about, they would didn't pay? Or never. No, and like she has this dreadful haircut that was only ever considered cute in 1988, like just awful. And just as a sort of interesting postscript, since I watched this film in 2021, Anthony Edwards and May winning and got married. What? uh They were both living in New York during like the pandemic and then they'd been friends for years but they'd also been married to other people and divorced and then they got together and they eloped and got married so Do know if they were married when they did the interview that came out with like the Blu-ray and things like that? Because they are just fawning over each other and that I'm like, huh, they really like each other. It was interesting. about that one too. Of course, Anthony Edwards, he wasn't really like a leading man. You mentioned Top Gun at the start, I haven't seen any of the revenge of the nerds films. But think he was in that the end of the lead performance I've had is an even more obscure Cold War film called Gotcha from 1985 that literally no one else. And like I said, I really like Mayor Winningham, but she's not like conventionally attractive enough to be considered like a Hollywood leading lady as well. So I love the fact that that you know, over 30 years after this film, the two of them ended up smaring each other. That's a That's a nice little post script. about a happy ending, son of a bitch. Happy ending to the very not happy ending. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So just to sort of, um, yeah, to wrap this up, like one of the questions that Dave asked is about my relationship with movies and wine. And I have to say that I must confess that I'm a real BB or like basic bitch when it comes to wine as well. I don't tend to do a lot of these sort of pairings with film. If I'm drinking by myself, it's usually I like something I usually prefer like nice white something like a vermin Tino or a semi on. If that's the kind of thing I'm having with like a meal because I like to make sort of Asian new dishes for myself as well. So I like those. Yeah. And then with the quality reds, I'll save that for like a special occasion. That's something with like friends or family like a nice dinner. That's not something I watch. If it's a movie, it's probably just a beer. So That's Tuesday for me. So, but for this one, I decided that, you know, okay, we're gonna have to do a bit of a pairing here. So I went to, um to Park Hill sellers in North Melbourne, let's give them a shout out. They're a specialist wine store here and challenged the guy who worked there. And this was a real head scrambler for him. He had no idea what to think about. it first? oh He expects people to ask for pairings with like seafood or something, not with, you know, 1980s apocalyptic movies as well. But what I ended up with was actually a 2024 San Gervais. Nice. which as you guys would know is, uh, it means it's from the Latin meaning the blood of Jupiter, the Roman God of thunder and the king of gods. And it's a grape of the Tuscany region that has been grown in Australia since the 1960s as well. So the reason I went with this one is that actually this vineyard mirth who put this out, uh, there are there, there, there, new label based out of the Macedon region here in Victoria. even though the vines that the wine comes from is over 40 years old. And so this just launched only a few months ago, yet only weeks ago, most of their wines were destroyed in a fire. There was a fire called the Harcourt fire here in Melbourne, and they lost two thirds of their store that was in a place called Harcourt Cool stores, which is the historic. m building that had existed since 1917, originally for like the local Apple orchards. But in recent years, it's stored wine, beer and fresh produce from about 90 small businesses in the area. So you mentioned at the start about how Miracle Mile is a very sweet film. And this is a very sweet wine, sort of like a lot of cherry notes and very easy drinking sweetness as well. So you can enjoy that. But there's also it's tinged with bitterness and destruction because of what happened to the winery. So it's a wind with a great story to tell. And it's a wine that I think links back to the film because it's ultimately it's about destruction and and and you want to hold on to the things that are great in the way that Harry and Julie have their romance and they hold on to that even if the world is destroyed around them. And so most of this is gone. Only a few bit bottles are left, but I'm going to drink it and it's sweet and it's beautiful. Nice. Very nice. Love it, man. Love it. Gorgeous story. Yeah. And good job to your wine shop for coming up, bringing that story to your attention. We talked about a number of different options, but this was the one I settled on more because I said the wine has a story to tell. Yeah, absolutely. That's the beauty of like the Baring Corner, man. You find those sort of heartstrings and you pluck them. Well, and psychologically, I think when you have that story to connect with the story of the movie, it's like it's going to work. Your brain is going to make it work, you know, as soon as you make that connection. It's like kind of the the actual details don't really matter. Once you're like, that's awesome. Let's do like, yeah, exactly. That's also why I brought up the Pan Pacific Auditorium that Harry's like jazz band, they're doing that save the Pan Pacific Auditorium and that building burnt down as well too. So there's an idea of destruction by fire in the meta, but in the actual narrative of the film as well. So that's why I think it's a good pairing for this one. It's a sweet line. It reminds you of the good things in life, but there's also like a sadness and an element of demise there. Yeah, it's sweet. Any last thoughts before we wrap up wrap up? What do you guys anything you want to say about this movie or or anything else? I think this is required viewing for anyone who has any interest in becoming a screenwriter, working in Hollywood, understanding a studio system or what the experience of the read on the page is in comparison. Yes, of course, of course. Yes, that's the in fact, that's the best lesson. But specifically, uh The idea that this script clearly read so fucking well, no one had a clue how to get it made without major, major changes. And it just what we did get because it was done in the hands of the original creator is kind of a vortex of what the fuck and ah, and I fully support it. Amen. the same reason this film so impressed people who read scripts for a living because it is so original. It is so unexpected. You can say that this film has flaws, but you must also admit that there's nothing else like it before. But those same reasons that we love it and people who know film love it are the same reasons that didn't really connect with an audience in 1989. it really hasn't ever since. mean, this is an established cult classic, but it's a long way from the mainstream as well. So that's one of the reasons I also picked it is to champion what I think is a brilliant film that deserves to be more widely seen. Yeah, beautiful. I agree. I agree. I think I think there's more people to discover it and I'm glad it's been re-released. You can find it on streaming. You can find it on Blu-ray depending on where you live. But go give it a look. Miracle Mile from 1989. Go take a look guys. Nick, where can people find you or listen? What other podcasts are you on regularly or where should people look for you if they want to find you on? Yeah. So the best place to find me is on letterbox where I'm just under my own name. I'm one of the few people like you, Dave. I'm just under my own name. So I'm pretty easy to find there too. I feel like that was a mistake. see everyone else under handles and I'm like, shit, am I supposed to have an alias? no. Yeah, I forgot about that. No, um I mentioned a couple of other podcasts that I've been on. One of them was recorded with some friends of mine in the US or Chris or also Ziglet Mu under on letterbox member of the collab. I've recorded a bunch of podcasts on their episode, their show the searches, and also um caliber nine from outer space. I mentioned the soldier and um in the cold of the night. Those are two episodes I did for caliber nine for outer space. and that's hosted by, uh, Rob or who is mosquito dragon on a box and they host a great double bills. Yep, yep. I know it's so funny because Nick's had done podcasts all the people I just know them by their letterbox hand, right? So it's good to put the voices to the handles. So yeah, and that's what's great about the letterbox community is bringing people together and talking. Yeah. And when I was at park yourselves, I was telling them about your podcast. They're like, I should be like, I should listen to that one as well. We like the wine part more than the music than the movies. Ha ha. True, All right. Fantastic. And folks find us on entertainment studios.com. That is our sub stack where we just posted today the heated wine pairing rivalries episodes one through three with another wine writer where we paired with heated rivalry episodes one through three and you get to vote who had the better pairing. So it's a real rivalry. All right. So if you've seen the show, it is six episodes long. We posted episodes one through three. uh Tatum West on the sidebar.substack.com. She's posting episodes four through six later this week. Or as we're recording, by the time you hear this, everything will be posted. But the voting will still be open for another week to go. If you love heated rivalry, like I do, and like Tatum does, go check that out. We have bonus uh articles on entertainment, on wine, collabs with other writers, you name it. And once again, down below, you will find a link to the collab on Letterboxd where you can find Nick, sometimes me, and others, we are under our real names. So fuck it, go find us. We can't hide. And it's all good to go. And once again, our sponsor this year curated wine shop on La Brea Avenue, speaking of La Brea and LA on La Brea Avenue in mid city LA. If you're in LA, they will help you find your wine, your entertainment inspired wine and movie pairing. You can go in and tell them unlike Nick's shop, which would be totally weird to doubt. They're actually getting used to this. So you can go in there and ask them and they will help you find the right wine to pair with your movie that evening or weekend or whatever you're planning to do it. So curated dash wines dot com or on the bray a curated wine. Do your Google Maps search. You will find them. Thank you so much for listening. We will be back in one week with another one and entertainment pairing for your entertainment. Chow for now.