Film #11: Miracle Mile
reviewed on Dec 6, 2011
Today we will be reviewing Miracle Mile. The film stars Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham (Brat Packer in the house) and includes a plethora of "Hey I have seen her in/him in" actors; Denise Crosby (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Mykelti Williamson (BUBBA!!!!!!), Kurt Fuller (a 1988 film project favorite for his unending stream of great character appearances in movies and TV; Alias, Wayne's World, Glee, That's My Bush, almost every David Kelley show, and on and on...he is like an acting tornado), classic B movie player John Agar(The Mole People, Attack of the Puppet People) and so many more! It was written and directed by Steve De Jarnett.
Summary:The film (almost in real time...which I love) is set over a weekend in Los Angeles. Anthony Edwards' Harry Washello (who I always give thumbs up to for classic roles in "Revenge of the Nerds" "Top Gun" "How I Got into College" "Fast Times" and "El Diablo") is a jazz trombonist/scientist/ museum guide who falls in love at a chance meeting at the La Brea Tar Pits with Mare Winningham's Julie Peters. They end up on a date to a restaurant where he buys all of the lobsters to set them free for her. Most of the action is centered on LA's Miracle Mile (Wilshire). Harry meets Julie's dad (Agar) and we find out that him and his wife have been split up for years over a fight that they can't remember. However, they both live in the same apartment complex. Harry and Julie make a date to meet at "Johnny's" after midnight. After a "freak" fire at his hotel, Harry oversleeps and ends up getting to the diner about 4 am. There he meets many eccentric characters as he searches for a way to contact Julie. It reminds of the scene in any great apocalypse thriller when those who are about to die, end up in a diner with a diverse cast of characters that they end having to stake their life on. There is a transvestite, a couple of foul mouthed night workers, a grizzled old diner owner( a must in these movies), sassy waitress, a flight attendant, and a strange woman with a satellite communication system in her briefcase (wall street broker, yuppie, CIA...ahh who cares?) named Landa (Crosby). Harry makes it to the phone to call Julie who does not answer. Then the phone rings, and the movie changes. On the other end of the phone is a man who works in a missile silo in North Dakota. He believes he has called his father and wants to apologize for their fight, informing his dad that the US will launch a nuclear strike in 50 minutes and that the Russians will retaliate in an hour and a half(the movie goes into real time from this moment). Harry is left to wonder if this is a joke and ends up telling the diner clients about it. Disbelief of Harry leads Landa to call her senator contacts who have all "vanished" to South America. She books a private plane to Antarctica for everyone who can get to the helicopter pad at the top of a tall building on Wilshire. They set out in a bus, when Harry realizes that Julie will be left behind. The rest of the film is spent with Harry in a panic to make it to Julie and get her to the helicopter no matter the cost. He moves up and down the Miracle Mile trying to complete the tasks of warning humanity, saving Julie and her parents, bringing her parents together, building a panicked "friendship" with a stereo thief named Wilson (Williamson), and trying to find a helicopter pilot at an all night gym. While committing various crimes, car theft/accessory to murder/breaking and entering/shooting, he questions if the phone call was even real or is he "Chicken Little". By dawn the city is in a panic, as the word has spread and mayhem is everywhere. People are looting, people are killing, people are letting morality vanish on the Miracle Mile. Is there really a war? Will Julie and Harry survive? I don't want to spoil it for those who have not seen it.
The Review:HOLY COW!!! This film is an amazing homage of the best of the worst Cold War-drive-in-nuclear paranoia-Ed Wood produced-fear the commies- movies of the 1950's! I watched it a few days ago and it is still sticking in my brain on a level of Cold War film nostalgia that I have , which until now had been reserved for Red Dawn, War Games, Rocky IV, Dr Strangelove, and Robot Monster. Welcome to the bomb shelter Miracle Mile! I am a sucker for a good piece of Cold War propaganda, and this is as good as it gets. I would even go so far as to call this the last great "blow up the world" film before the Cold War came to an end. It is not great in a Godfather great, it is great in a "man this movie is just pure fun" great. It is what Johnnie Be Good could have been if it had not tried to be 8 different movies. Edwards is at the top of his game as a man driven into a wild night of survival. It reminded me a lot of Griffen Dunne's metamorphosis throughout the night in After Hours, or Keanu Reeves' similar "gotta get home" night in 1988's The Night Before . I just realized I get to review this movie..yay!!! Edwards' DNA can also probably be claimed to part of the skeleton of Steve Carrell's Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Winningham is also great, but hey, she is a Brat Packer after all. She reminded me an awful lot though of Mary Stuart Masterson in Some Kind of Wonderful; maybe it was the 80's hair.
Again, I enjoy this movie for its theater like stagecraft. The environment is surrounded by quirky characters on the stage of the Miracle Mile. In fact, I can't imagine why it hasn't been turned into a stage play. Act I could be everything that is normal and mundane about life, leading up to the climax of the phone call and Harry's leap from the bus into the Los Angeles night. Act II focuses around Harry and humanity's descent into the abyss, ending with the non Hollywoodish finale. The characters are so wonderfully scripted (even the smallest role makes you feel stuck in this nightmare with them). By far the greatest transition is seeing the real time melt down of Fuller's yuppie character, who when we first meet him is cool and calm as he brings the needed supplies to the roof top. When we find him again after Edwards maneuvers his way through the hellish panicked playground of the Miracle Mile he is in full on "Apocalypse Now" mode, downing pills and existing in a invisible world of insanity. Williamson even gets a pre "Forrest Gump" Bubba like death scene on a department store escalator. You almost wait for him to say "Why'd this happen Forrest?" I love directors who take chances with real time and skip the cuts. It is brazen filmmaking that is pulled off by Mr DeJarnett (who would go on to direct Lizzie McGuire). I can tell, that like me, he must have loved movies like "The Horror at Party Beach" and "Catwomen from the Moon". He treats these B movie classics with love in his homages to their cheesy goodness. Lastly, I appreciate that he doesn't sell out to Hollywood values in his plot and ideas. He is Kevin Bacon in "The Big Picture". WATCH THIS FILM!!!!
10 out of 10 for good cheesy fun
A link to Roger Ebert's review of Miracle Mile in 1988 ( I promise, I thought of the After Hours reference on my own..but good to know Mr Ebert and I are thinking alike)
Summary:The film (almost in real time...which I love) is set over a weekend in Los Angeles. Anthony Edwards' Harry Washello (who I always give thumbs up to for classic roles in "Revenge of the Nerds" "Top Gun" "How I Got into College" "Fast Times" and "El Diablo") is a jazz trombonist/scientist/ museum guide who falls in love at a chance meeting at the La Brea Tar Pits with Mare Winningham's Julie Peters. They end up on a date to a restaurant where he buys all of the lobsters to set them free for her. Most of the action is centered on LA's Miracle Mile (Wilshire). Harry meets Julie's dad (Agar) and we find out that him and his wife have been split up for years over a fight that they can't remember. However, they both live in the same apartment complex. Harry and Julie make a date to meet at "Johnny's" after midnight. After a "freak" fire at his hotel, Harry oversleeps and ends up getting to the diner about 4 am. There he meets many eccentric characters as he searches for a way to contact Julie. It reminds of the scene in any great apocalypse thriller when those who are about to die, end up in a diner with a diverse cast of characters that they end having to stake their life on. There is a transvestite, a couple of foul mouthed night workers, a grizzled old diner owner( a must in these movies), sassy waitress, a flight attendant, and a strange woman with a satellite communication system in her briefcase (wall street broker, yuppie, CIA...ahh who cares?) named Landa (Crosby). Harry makes it to the phone to call Julie who does not answer. Then the phone rings, and the movie changes. On the other end of the phone is a man who works in a missile silo in North Dakota. He believes he has called his father and wants to apologize for their fight, informing his dad that the US will launch a nuclear strike in 50 minutes and that the Russians will retaliate in an hour and a half(the movie goes into real time from this moment). Harry is left to wonder if this is a joke and ends up telling the diner clients about it. Disbelief of Harry leads Landa to call her senator contacts who have all "vanished" to South America. She books a private plane to Antarctica for everyone who can get to the helicopter pad at the top of a tall building on Wilshire. They set out in a bus, when Harry realizes that Julie will be left behind. The rest of the film is spent with Harry in a panic to make it to Julie and get her to the helicopter no matter the cost. He moves up and down the Miracle Mile trying to complete the tasks of warning humanity, saving Julie and her parents, bringing her parents together, building a panicked "friendship" with a stereo thief named Wilson (Williamson), and trying to find a helicopter pilot at an all night gym. While committing various crimes, car theft/accessory to murder/breaking and entering/shooting, he questions if the phone call was even real or is he "Chicken Little". By dawn the city is in a panic, as the word has spread and mayhem is everywhere. People are looting, people are killing, people are letting morality vanish on the Miracle Mile. Is there really a war? Will Julie and Harry survive? I don't want to spoil it for those who have not seen it.
The Review:HOLY COW!!! This film is an amazing homage of the best of the worst Cold War-drive-in-nuclear paranoia-Ed Wood produced-fear the commies- movies of the 1950's! I watched it a few days ago and it is still sticking in my brain on a level of Cold War film nostalgia that I have , which until now had been reserved for Red Dawn, War Games, Rocky IV, Dr Strangelove, and Robot Monster. Welcome to the bomb shelter Miracle Mile! I am a sucker for a good piece of Cold War propaganda, and this is as good as it gets. I would even go so far as to call this the last great "blow up the world" film before the Cold War came to an end. It is not great in a Godfather great, it is great in a "man this movie is just pure fun" great. It is what Johnnie Be Good could have been if it had not tried to be 8 different movies. Edwards is at the top of his game as a man driven into a wild night of survival. It reminded me a lot of Griffen Dunne's metamorphosis throughout the night in After Hours, or Keanu Reeves' similar "gotta get home" night in 1988's The Night Before . I just realized I get to review this movie..yay!!! Edwards' DNA can also probably be claimed to part of the skeleton of Steve Carrell's Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Winningham is also great, but hey, she is a Brat Packer after all. She reminded me an awful lot though of Mary Stuart Masterson in Some Kind of Wonderful; maybe it was the 80's hair.
Again, I enjoy this movie for its theater like stagecraft. The environment is surrounded by quirky characters on the stage of the Miracle Mile. In fact, I can't imagine why it hasn't been turned into a stage play. Act I could be everything that is normal and mundane about life, leading up to the climax of the phone call and Harry's leap from the bus into the Los Angeles night. Act II focuses around Harry and humanity's descent into the abyss, ending with the non Hollywoodish finale. The characters are so wonderfully scripted (even the smallest role makes you feel stuck in this nightmare with them). By far the greatest transition is seeing the real time melt down of Fuller's yuppie character, who when we first meet him is cool and calm as he brings the needed supplies to the roof top. When we find him again after Edwards maneuvers his way through the hellish panicked playground of the Miracle Mile he is in full on "Apocalypse Now" mode, downing pills and existing in a invisible world of insanity. Williamson even gets a pre "Forrest Gump" Bubba like death scene on a department store escalator. You almost wait for him to say "Why'd this happen Forrest?" I love directors who take chances with real time and skip the cuts. It is brazen filmmaking that is pulled off by Mr DeJarnett (who would go on to direct Lizzie McGuire). I can tell, that like me, he must have loved movies like "The Horror at Party Beach" and "Catwomen from the Moon". He treats these B movie classics with love in his homages to their cheesy goodness. Lastly, I appreciate that he doesn't sell out to Hollywood values in his plot and ideas. He is Kevin Bacon in "The Big Picture". WATCH THIS FILM!!!!
10 out of 10 for good cheesy fun
A link to Roger Ebert's review of Miracle Mile in 1988 ( I promise, I thought of the After Hours reference on my own..but good to know Mr Ebert and I are thinking alike)