Arts & Entertainment
BAMcinématek Presents: Miracle Mile
Part of the BAMcinématek series Tangerine Dreams
Fri, Jun 1 at 2, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm
Directed by Steve De Jarnatt
With Anthony Edwards, Mare Winningham
(1988) 87min, 35mm
“One of the strongest [soundtracks] in concept for any film [Tangerine Dream] has done.”—allmusic.com
This cult thriller is propelled by Tangerine Dream’s ticking-stopwatch score, heightening the atmospherics and end-of-the-world Cold War paranoia. Hapless trombone player Harry (Edwards) and coffee shop waitress Julie (Winningham) meet at the La Brea Tar Pits and fall in puppy-dog love, but a planned rendezvous later that night is waylaid by a freak electrical outage and a non-functioning alarm clock. When an anonymous caller warns Harry that the Russians have launched World War III—and that Los Angeles will be obliterated by nuclear missiles in 50 minutes—, Harry scours the city in search of Julie rather than save himself.