Fries with gravy, a cherry cola. Friendship, bragging rights … and does Sinatra or Mathis croon the best makeout music? Before there was the counterculture of the ’60s, there was the counter culture.

From his Oscar-nominated script, Barry Levinson makes his directing debut with this endearing study of pals in transition. Film-debuting Ellen Barkin plays a neglected wife. Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon, Timothy Daly and Paul Reiser – chosen from over 600 hopefuls – play the up-all-night buddies who work out the remnants of adolescence during ritual grazings at a busy steel-and-vinyl hangout in 1959 Baltimore. Stars, laughs, interlocking stories: entertainment is the daily special in Diner.