MATINEE

This was my first Joe Dante screening at this year’s MIFF, who are doing a big retrospective on the director.  Even though I like Dante as a director, this is a film of his that I had never previously seen.  It is an homage to the sci-fi “B” movies of the 50’s and 60’s (which Dante is a massive fan of and has an encyclopedic knowledge of) and especially of filmmaker William Castle (often unfairly known as the poor man’s Hitchcock). 

The film is set in 1962 during the peak of the Cuban Missile Crisis, where the citizens of the U.S were terrified that they could be bombed at any minute and the threat of nuclear disaster was always at the forefront.  In walks Lawrence Woosley, gimmick filmmaker extraordinaire, here to promote his new creature feature “MANT”, half man and half ant (filmed in “ATOMOVISION”), both exposed to radiation to become the terrifying monster.  Woosley is smart enough to realise that the current crisis is a perfect time to release his new horror film, as the audience are already on edge and terrified, but he also believes that the film can be cathartic by showing the audience that, after the curtains have closed, hey, everything is all right – it was only a movie.  So by this fact, “Matinee” is very interesting as it explores fear, both the very real and the created, and how we sometimes need this created fear to actually feel safe.   

You can tell that Joe Dante loved this project because his attention to detail is impeccable.  It just looks the period and you would swear that it was actually made during the 60’s and not 1993.  Also the film-within-the-film “MANT” is a perfect recreation of the sci-fi films that were made back then in the 50’s and 60’s, right down to its trailer.  Although dramatically a little uneven, “Matinee” is a good film with a lot more going on and to say than first appears, and it is a shame that it is not more widely known.

3 Stars - Viewed at the 2010 Melbourne International Film Festival