Matinee marks the end of the fantasy and wonder of our early teens, surrounded by buttered popcorn, movie magic, cheers, and screams. It is the ultimate love letter to cinema, dreams and teenage awakenings.
Mention the name Joe Dante, and Gremlins, Explorers, or Innerspace usually come to mind. Yet, Matinee is undoubtedly one of his most personal movies. In Matinee, Dante draws on the 1950s comic books and films that inspired him as a kid while exploring the true horror of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Placing his story in the hands of a character not dissimilar to movie mogul and showman William Castle, Dante would weave theatrical showmanship, escapism and change with silver screen dreams.
It’s 1962, and John F Kennedy is president of the United States. However, the optimism of his inauguration in January 1961 has been replaced by paranoia and the fear of a possible Nuclear War. Meanwhile, movie mogul and live theatre impresario Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman) is preparing to launch his latest monster flick, ‘Mant’ and where better place than Key West, Florida? After all, just off the coast, the horror and fear of the Cuban Missile Crisis is unfolding, leaving everyone on edge.
Gene (Simon Fenton) lives on the local army base with his younger brother, mum and absent navy dad. He spends his days with his best friend, Stan (Omri Katz), buried in monster magazines, movies, and science fiction as the world changes around him. However, Gene is aware that teenage life will soon invade, and Stan is already beginning to favour girls over the local cinema. Still, thankfully, no girl is going to trump seeing Woolsey’s new film ‘MANT’ on the big screen in a cinema rigged with theatrical tricks.
Matinee is a love letter to a now-bygone era of cinematic showmanship from directors like Castle, who enthralled, enticed and entertained behind auditorium doors. If, like me, you spent your weekends as a kid in the safety of a cinema where your feet were stuck to the floor, Matinee is a sublime slice of nostalgic movie-making. This is Dante’s childhood and teens, laced with elements of fiction as he reminds us of the power cinema can wield in our younger years and the reality that the adult world is far scarier than anything on the screen.
Matinee marks the end of the fantasy and wonder of our early teens, surrounded by buttered popcorn, movie magic, cheers, and screams. It is the ultimate love letter to cinema, dreams and teenage awakenings.
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