Review of Matinee (1993) by Nicholas V — 28 Jun 2008

The career of director Joe Dante has always been an interesting one. You might not know his name, but you might know many of his films. His films include The Howling, Gremlins, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Innerspace, The 'Burbs, and Small Soldiers. After making the sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch in 1990, he then reunited with the film's screenwriter Charlie Haas to make what would become his not only his most personal work, but also the best film of his now 40-year film career. The film is Matinee.

In the film, we are introduced to Gene Loomis (Simon Fenton), a 15-year old teenager whose father is an army commander. As a result, his family moves a lot. The time is October 1962, where he is now living in Key West, Florida. All his life, he has developed a fondness for monster movies (or as they are better known "B" movies) and his hero is producer Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman), who will be previewing his newest movie in the coming week at that very theater. It's called Mant!, which is about what happens when an ant and a man were both exposed to radiation and the result of the mutation. But as Gene and his little brother Dennis return home, they learn that the Cuban Missle Crisis is now in full effect, and the country is brought down into a state of panic. As a result of his obsession with monster movies, he doesn't really have any friends (As he observes, "We're just going to be moving again soon anyway."), but that changes the next day as he meets Stan (Omri Katz, better remembered as Max from Hocus Pocus) who soon becomes his friend. He is currently smitten with the prettiest girl in the school Sherry (Kellie Martin), whose little secret is that she is still keeping contact with her delinquint beatnik of an ex-boyfriend Harvey Starkweather (James Villemaire), while Gene's attention has been distracted by Sandra (Lisa Jakub) a free-thinking girl who knows that the theory of duck-and-cover is a lie. All of these characters will converge at that faithful Matinee showing of that movie, either for better, or for worse.

If you go into Matinee expecting the usual weirdness from other Joe Dante movies, that you will walk out somewhat disappointed. The only way to practically enjoy the film is as basically a much more quiet movie that has a few moments here and there of weirdness. What I especially loved about the movie is that it's really a coming-of-age tale about growing up. It really says that you can't be scared of everything all of your life because then there would be no time to relax. As I watched the film, I felt that feeling throughout it. It might not ring the same truth with everyone. The first 50 minutes are very strong depicting teenagers no different that what we were when we were growing up. Everything that leads up to that preview screening is dealt with realistically and spruced through with quite a few laughs.

One of the first half's best scenes is a scene where we witness Gene and Lawrence Woolsey bonding over their love of monster movies as they arre walking down a street in downtown Key West. It's this scene that says a lot about these characters. Goodman's line in that scene ("Keep your eyes open...") is a perfect metaphor for everything that surrounds the characters of the movie. For him, it means look out for those scary parts, but in many ways, he's not just saying that about the movies he makes, but also about the real problems that man will encounter throughout the world (Nuclear war, murder, life in general). In this scene, we learn that Woolsey is much more vulnerable than one might think at first. As a result, this develops his character into a three-dimensional filmmaker who respects everything in the world as well as his movies.

In the second half of the film, which takes places during the actual Matinee screening of the movie, we are treated to some quite funny moments, and many of them come from the film-within-the film Mant!. Here is a perfect execution of what those monster movies were really like back then, and it's quite a lot of fun to watch the cheesiness flow from the screen. But what makes it so much fun are the gimmicks that Lawrence Woolsey has created to go along with the film. The character of Woolsey is really a loving homage to independent movie producer William Castle, who created special gimmicks to get audiences into the theaters anyway he could. For Mant!, Woolsey has created Atomo-Vision (which puts the audience in the movie itself) and Rumble Rama to go along with the film. It's a lot of fun to watch these moments appear on screen because it shows a time when movies were desperate to get us into the theater. These films did exist in the late 1950s and early 1960s, so Mant! is the perfect homage to these kinds of movies.

As the film progresses to its conclusion, we are taken away from Mant! because we have a theater manager (Robert Picardo) who believes that Rumble Rama is the end of the world and also the fact that Harvey Starkweather is at the screening too, which doesn't help matters once he has caught Stan and Sherry kissing. But despite what could've easily had been a flawed finale, it actually turns out be a very solid conclusion all the way around, even with a somewhat over-the-top climax, it actually works quite well considering there's some satisfying drama in the middle of it all. It also helps that Jerry Goldsmith's wonderful score understands the film from the beginning as he gives it just the right tone. His love them that we hear throughout the film is a very satisfying, Henry Mancini-inspired piece that works well on its own. As the film ends, the film feels like a joyously sayisfying film that manges to delvier fine performances and a good time.

Originally released by Universal Pictures in theatres back in January 1993, Matinee basically crashed and burned when it opened, which was a shame because the film is so entertaining, you forget a lot of the time that it is actually a homage to the "B" movies of its time period. It's been issued a couple of times on video since and even once on DVD (all the way back in 1998 as part of an agreement with Universal and Image Entertainment). However, since 2001, it has remained unavailible on the format, a huge shame considering the cult status that this film has gained since its release 15 years ago. Back in 2004, the Online Film Critics released a poll for The 100 Most Underrated Movies of the 90s, and Matinee came in at 60. Having the movie off of DVD has not been a good thing, especially considering that Universal has created an HD transfer of this movie for broadcast on both HDNet Movies and Universal HD (which is currently the only channel showing it, and quite sporadically at that). What makes it even sadder is this: Out of all the films in director Joe Dante' cannon, this is by far his best and most satisfying one. Funny, charming, and wonderful, Matinee always has its heart in the right place and never forgets what it's doing. It is a truly wonderful film that comes highly recommended!