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A rare artistic effort for children, capturing not only the magic of 1950's low budget horror films, but also the pleasure of viewing them in the theatre. John Goodman gets top billing as struggling shock producer notable for his gimmicky showman style promotions. Based on B-movie producer/director William Castle, Goodman's character Lawrence Woolsey is the lovable adult because he's a child at heart. Matinee is actually from the perspective of a teenage outsider who is a big fan of horror films (Simon Fenton). There are in jokes for followers of horror and politics, but Joe Dante uses the children's behavior to show adults what they've lost as much as to be helpful in instructing today's youth. Set during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 Key West, much of Dante's comedy is built around comparing and contrasting the absurdity of adults with the indifference of children. The adults spend all their time worrying and fussing about the bomb, not opposing it in any potentially meaningful manner, mostly just proving the link between fear and profitability by selling out the supermarket and buying security provisions that wouldn't be the least bit helpful. On the other hand, Dante provides a child that doesn't rebel in a way conveniently defined to line the business world's pockets: she challenges the accepted lies about bomb safety. The children also make the best of the uncontrollable situation: accidentally getting trapped in a bomb shelter becomes a first date. Dante made his first film, Hollywood Boulevard, for Roger Corman by building new scenes around footage from previous New World Pictures releases, and the idea of blending supposed fiction and supposed reality has been central to much of his subsequent work. Working with a bigger budget he incorporates the movie/TV footage more seamlessly by shooting it himself. The movie within the movie Mant about a man exposed to radiation who mutates into a half ant is a riot that perfectly accomplishes the point of the film, warning against widespread panic and the bomb itself. Goodman has supposedly created a new format based on the bomb called Atomovision and a new rigging technique that makes things shake called Rumble-Rama (a big improvement over the "joy buzzers" Castle rigged some seats with for The Tingler). His various tricks to make the movie more realistic meld with the crazed irrational state induced bomb scare paranoia. Matinee is the kind of film that makes you want to be young again because it's one of the few that seems to truly remember what being a kid was like. It hits on things like how you felt closer to people you didn't truly know, and even understands that you hated family films because they were candy coated corn. ***
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