Racing with the Moon

MOVIE #1,808 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 07.11.24 Starting in 2020, I decided to watch & review the entire Nicolas Cage filmography in alphabetical order. This is 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 𝔬𝔣 ℭ𝔞𝔤𝔢 – Chapter 67 There are no Nicolas Cage movies that begin with the letter Q, the one and only of the 26 that doesn’t have representation. So we are into the R's now and that's wild! I can finally see the end in sight of this project that has been going on for four years and counting. God help me, we’re about ⅔ of the way through now. This very early Cage flick begins with Sean Penn smoking as two boys put pennies on the train tracks. Ah, yes, a classic thing boys love to do…

It's Point Muir, CA, 1942 and we cut to Sean Penn getting a piano lesson as his dog looks on unimpressed. But he just wants to play rock-'n'-roll…


We meet Cage at the bowling alley where they are both employed as pinsetters. This was a job back in 1942 and I genuinely had no idea it was a thing…


Yup, that's Crispin Glover trying to hit them with a bowling ball like a little asshole prick.

The boys go on a double date. Cage sets Penn up with Carol Kane. But it's just a ploy for Cage to take his date out alone…


So Penn goes to the movies alone and falls in love at first sight with the ticket window girl. He leaves her a flower without speaking to her.

The next morning he goes for a walk with his fighter pilot dog…

Later that night he runs into the dream girl again and this is the type of shenanigans that could only go down in 1942…


A simpler time.

Penn finds out that she's a rich girl, totally out of his league. We also learn that he and Cage are getting ready to leave to fight in WWII. He better make his move fast on this dream girl! The next day he tracks her down at the library where she also works. He doesn't make a great first impression…


The dream girl (Caddie) sets up Penn with a friend of hers for roller-skating on Christmas eve. It turns out she already has a boyfriend, an air force boy. They meet at the rink for some awkward banter. And, naturally, Sean Penn can't skate. Hijinks ensue. But his total lack of ability leads to some one-on-one time with Caddie…


That's a really sweet scene. I like how proud he is of his dad's line of work as a gravedigger.

Cage warns him that he's barking up the wrong tree going after a “Gatsby girl” but Penn is in love. They sneak away to an abandoned, dilapidated barroom where he gives her an impromptu piano lesson. I love a good “heart and soul” duet…


She's starting to fall for him. But he's leaving in a month.

Then we get a twist: this isn't some rich girl. She's the daughter of the rich family's maid. Well, well, well, how do you like them apples? Then they have sex in the local secret lake. He tells Cage all about it but the subject quickly changes…


Later that night, the conversation continues with more alcohol…


This is a great proto-crazy Cage role, a sign of things to come.

Later that night, Cage admits that he got his girlfriend pregnant and needs money for an abortion. Broke and leaving for the war in mere weeks, he's in a pickle.

In the meantime, Cage and Penn do a big prank at the school war scenario training and the latter channels his inner Spicoli but his new gf isn't a fan…


So she takes him on a visit to the real V.A. hospital delivering books from the library. There, Sean Penn meets Michael Madsen, who I can't believe ever looked this young, or legless (sorry)…


That's a really great scene.

Then Cage does mop karaoke…


He still wants help with the abortion money but Penn is more preoccupied with falling in love then preventing his friend from becoming a dad before they leave for war. To the former, Caddie finds out that Penn thinks she's a rich girl and doesn't know how to handle it. You can definitely see where this is going but it's still an effective, enjoyable ride.

Penn tries to hustle some Navy boys at pool to get Cage’s money but it doesn't go so hot. We get a lengthy big band soundtracked billiards scene which is easily the worst of the movie. It ends like this…


This leads Cage to essentially ask Penn's presumably rich gf for the cash outright. So Penn explains the situation…


This leads Caddie to try and steal a pearl necklace from her mom's employer. She gets caught immediately. So she explains the situation (sort of) and the real rich girl says she'll get her the money. Well, that seems too good to be true.

The four of them go get her an abortion in a trailer park no questions asked. Then all the cards are laid out on the table…


Before he leaves for war, Penn leaves Caddie a treasure map drawn in crayon…


That leads to a present in the woods, a pair of shoes she wanted but couldn't afford. Penn is there waiting too and they tell each other “I love you.”

The movie ends with Penn and Cage racing to board the train out of town one last time…


There's some really wonderful moments and scenes in this. And sure, the story is a little textbook romantic melodrama, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. This was probably the best of Cage's mostly forgotten 80s work that I've seen so far.

THE VERDICT: 7 CAGES OUT OF 10 • CLICK HERE for all 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 𝔬𝔣 ℭ𝔞𝔤𝔢 Chapters + Ongoing Rankings.

Next time on The Year of Cage, we return to the mid 2010s wasteland for the action/crime picture, Rage.

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,807 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,809 ⫸

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Racing with the Moon is a 1984 American drama film directed by Richard Benjamin, written by Steve Kloves, and starring Sean Penn, Elizabeth McGovern and Nicolas Cage. The original music score was composed by Dave Grusin. It was released on March 23, 1984.