Matinee – Review

Matinee is a fun and unique blend of elements featuring a story about the love of movie making combined with a life drama of growing up during the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 1960s. The time is October 1962 and the location is Key West, Florida. Young Army brat kids Gene (Fenton) and Dennis Loomis (Soffer) watch trailers for upcoming features at the movie theater, including the Sci-Fi horror show “Mant!” which features the combination of a radiated man combining with an ant.

Mant! is brought to life by super producer Lawrence Woolsey (Goodman), who is actively going on a nationwide tour to promote the film, including a stop in Key West, where he plans on using Atomo Vision to boost word of mouth, which utilizes all sorts of special theater effects like smoke and “Rumble-Rama” seat shaking gimmicks. Gene looks forward to the upcoming show, while school, parents, politics and girls get in the way of his daily life.

Matinee’s focus on the love of film allows for some wonderful and satirical tribute scenes to 50s and 60s Sci-Fi and monster movies. Some of these are the best parts of the film, but in general the whole script is pretty fun and full of light-hearted life observations despite its background of turmoil with Soviet missiles in Cuba and war tensions.

The focal points of the many kids and their own perspectives of growing up offers plenty of levity, and the differing backgrounds surrounding the Army base provides the story plenty of ground to cover along with the core movie screening plot. The mixture is a cohesive time of fun and discovery even for those that did not grow up in the period and don’t have a lot of historical context of the time.

Matinee is a funny and harmless time at the movies. It has a lot of love for the film making industry and is enjoyable all around.