The twelfth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1989 features our future cult classic pick, teen skateboarding drama Gleaming the Cube. Written by Michael Tolkin, directed by Graeme Clifford and starring Christian Slater, Steven Bauer, Min Luong and Richard Herd, Gleaming the Cube was a box-office failure but became an influential piece of skater culture.

The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Richard Harrington in the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/gleamingthecubepg13harrington_a0aaa2.htm), Janet Maslin in the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/18/movies/review-film-skateboards-vietnamese-and-intrigue.html), and Kevin Thomas in the Los Angeles Times (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-01-14-ca-22-story.html).