Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 30, 1993 TAG: 9301300251
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
FUNNY AND NOSTALGIC "MATINEE" RINGS TRUE ON SEVERAL FRONTS
"Matinee" could well be the sleeper of the winter. It's a brightly humorous, sweetly nostalgic coming-of-age comedy that should appeal to baby boomers and their youngsters as well.The year is 1962, and the location is Key West.
John Goodman plays filmmaker and promoter Lawrence Woolsey. Woolsey appears to be a composite of horror schlockmeister William Castle and legendary exploitation promoters Kroger Babb and David Friedman. He surrounds openings of his low-budget horror movies with sensationalist hoopla and even hires his actors to pose as protesting citizens to arouse controversy. In this case, they're played by filmmaker John Sayles and sci-fi B-movie veteran Dick Miller.
Cathy Moriarty plays Lawrence's disgruntled and long-suffering leading lady and companion who can't dim his enthusiasm for grandiose hucksterism.
Lawrence is about to premiere his latest movie in Key West, much to the delight of young Gene Loomis, played by Simon Fenton. Gene doesn't have a lot to be happy about. He's the new kid in school, and his father has just been shipped out to sea because of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In fact, most Key West residents are in a panic.
Director Joe Dante and writer Charlie Haas manage to bring both humor and seriousness to the very real fear of atomic war that was precipitated by the crisis.
But Gene is a true monster-movie fan, and he's looking forward to meeting his hero. He's also developing a crush on a sensitive, bohemian student played nicely by Lisa Jakub.
Meanwhile, his friend (Omri Katz) is making a lot of progress with the girl of his dreams - until her delinquent boyfriend shows up.
Haas and Dante know their territory well. I know. I was 13 at the time, and this movie sparked a lot of memory cells and brought back several landmarks of adolescence in 1962; raucous Saturday matinees featuring such William Castle staples as "The Tingler"; tunes such as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "Loco-Motion"; saying "tough" instead of "cool"; and most of all those early crushes.
But this is a good-natured comedy that transcends mere nostalgia even as it pays tribute to a colorful but moribund philosophy of movie-making and exhibition. Particularly funny are scenes from "Mant," the movie about a man turned into a giant ant, that Woolsey is premiering.
The cast is appealing, and Goodman is particularly fine as the larger-than-life moviemaker who expounds wisely on the theory behind horror movies and on life itself.
Woolsey rings particularly true when he tells Gene that the biggest hustle of all is the concept that adults are in control. "They're making it up as they go along, just like kids," he says.
Matinee: ***1/2
A Universal picture at Valley View Mall 6 (362-8219). Rated PG for language\ and mild violence; 110 minutes.