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SPEED LIMIT: AWKWARD

In this episode, we’re breaking down the 1985 classic Back to the Future, directed by Robert Zemeckis. We follow Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), a guitar playing, skateboard riding, teenager who accidentally erases his own existence. While Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown (Christopher Lloyd) turns a DeLorean into a time machine, proving that if you’re going to mess with the space-time continuum, you might as well do it with gull-wing doors.

Marty gets stuck in 1955 and has to play matchmaker for his own parents. He meets the younger, significantly nerdier George McFly (Crispin Glover), who is essentially a human doormat, and Lorraine Baines (Lea Thompson), who develops a crush on Marty that makes the us all want to hide under our seats. It’s a bold cinematic choice to have a mother flirt with her future son, but hey, it was the '80s! Meanwhile, they have to dodge the town bully, Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), a man whose intellectual capacity is roughly equivalent to the dump truck of manure he ends up covered in.

And a fantastic supporting cast who keep the 1950s (and '80s) feeling alive. From Jennifer Parker (Claudia Wells), Marty’s supportive girlfriend who spends most of the movie waiting on a porch, to the stern Mr. Strickland (James Tolkan), who has apparently been bald and angry since the dawn of time. We also can't forget the musical stylings of Marvin Berry (Harry Waters Jr.), who calls his cousin Chuck to let him know he found that "new sound" Marty stole from the future. It’s a wild ride and a great reminder that your parents were once just as awkward as you are.

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Here's a quick hit from the loft. These are movies that always seemed to be on the cable box between 1980-1984. And I got caught up in them every time. Hypnotic. It was like the O.G. doomscroll, but with a great return.