One of the greatest movie-watching experiences of my life was when I was a teenager and my dad sat me down in front of the TV, popped a tape into the VCR, and said, “We’re watching this movie.”
“What’s it about?” I asked.
“I’m not telling you,” he said.
He would, at least, tell me the name of the movie—Miracle Mile.
Now, DON’T go looking this movie up right away. Trust me on this. He was 1000% right to approach it this way. If you do go and look it up, you might see a screenshot from the movie, or worse, the cover of the DVD or a poster, and even that’s too much.
How do you talk about a movie when you don’t want to say a single thing about it? Even saying I don’t want to tell you anything tells you something. I’m often pretty vague on the plot details when I write about film, because discovery is so much part of the enjoyment, but usually then I can at least talk about tone, or themes, or… something!
And this isn’t even like not wanting to give away a plot twist, like with The Sixth Sense. At least then I can tell you a kid sees dead people.
But, OK, here’s what I will tell you about Miracle Mile: It stars Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham. It was made in 1988, which is kind of significant just given what might have been on people’s minds then, and also, boy are some of the clothes and styles ridiculous. The movie’s not confusing at all; this isn’t one of those things you’ll have to work to figure out. And it’s absolutely brilliantly constructed.
You can easily rent Miracle Mile through Amazon or iTunes, or you can buy the blu-ray or DVD, but I’m telling you, you have to figure out a way to do this without looking at the cover, or the thumbnail photo on the streaming service. If you have someone else in your house who can do the renting or buying for you, and then set you up to watch it, that would be ideal.
If you can pull this off, I guarantee you will thank me. Just like, right now, I should say: Thank you, Dad, for giving me something I’ve never forgotten.
