Monday, April 21, 2008

Clip(s) of the Week

Howdy T and A fans (trash aesthetic fans). You know, here at Trash Aesthetics, I wear my allegiances pretty unabashedly on my sleeve. There's no guess-work as to how I feel about things media related - I'm pretty direct. Now, having said that - let it be known that I have on occasion (frequently) extolled gushy amounts of hero worship towards the bottomless well of knowledge and talent possessed by the most underrated and neglected (by the mainstream) writer/director/producer/historian and all around good guy-auteur around: Joe Dante.

For years, I have been trying to track down a copy of MATINEE (1993) on DVD, it went into moritorium quite awhile back and has been a major pain in my ass to locate a copy. My friend Don, who has more dvd's than your average Blockbuster doesn't even have a copy! Let's take a look at the trailer for the brilliant - (I say BRILLIANT people) Matinee.



Joe Dante's ode' to William Castle and growing up 60s style is one of my favorite all-time movies. It rates very very high. I Love all of Dante's work (my God, Gremlins II is a work of genius), but Matinee is my sentimental favorite and maybe it might be Joe's too. Here's my second bonus clip for this week - the trailer for MANT! (the film within a film in Matinee).



I haven't seen anything on IMDB, but in Tim Lucas' current issue of Video Watchdog, it has been discussed and reported that Joe's next film is a sort of Day For Night, Irma Vep, Ed Wood, type thing. Looks like he is examining the behind the scenes story of the Jack Nicholson penned, Roger Corman helmed The Trip (1967) - a personal favorite of mine - due in no small part because I adore Susan Strasberg - but it's also a great cultural artifact.

I guess the only question then is what parts do Dick Miller and Robert Picardo play?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Matinee? with the gigantic ants and the cold war bomb scare and all of that?

Am I crazy, or were John Goodman and Kelly Martin in that movie?

I remember seeing it at the dollar theater in my neighborhood. I rode my bike there.

So anyway. Hello, as promised, I checked out your blog.

I'm throwing a party at my house this friday, you should come. It will make up for your no show at the oscars.

Myspace me, we'll be in touch.

Molly

Chick Young said...

Sounds good Miss Molly. Appreciate your thoughts, much thanks! We shall keep in touch.

Ross Horsley said...

Oh for Floyd's sake, how frustrating! Matinee is easy to get your Mant-loving hands on here in the UK. It's even a budget release. Are you multi-regional?

Chick Young said...

Hello Mate. I've seen it on Amazon UK before, but hesitated as the region 1 ntsc was the widescreen presentation. I didn't want the full-frame Ross, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I think I'll have to buy it after all. And yes, region free over here. Of course, I bought both sets of SPACED discs from Amazon UK as I was told the NTSC releases weren't gonna happen. Well, bingo! They're comin in a few months I think. How's it going with you my friend?

Anonymous said...

"Matinee" was a terrific movie. We saw it first run--possibly because I was a fan of Cathy Moriarity as much as any other reason. Dante caught the tenor of the early 1960s perfectly. It was still the post-World War II generation, the end of the baby boom and, even though no one knew it, of course, the cusp of THE SIXTIES--which actually ended sometime between December 6, 1969 (Altamont) and April 30, 1975 (fall of Saigon). I am sure "Matinee" is more than a paean to lost innocence and homage to the movies of William Castle but it works beautifully on both of those levels. I agree completely on "Gremlins II"-- a perfectly paced movie and John Glover was perfect as the slimy bad guy.

Thanks for continuing to hit so many partially forgotten high points of our cinematic past.

Mike Peterson said...

Great reading this