wexner center for the arts


Film/Video

Images courtesy of Universal Pictures


Images courtesy of Universal Pictures
Images courtesy of Universal Pictures

Retrospective: Joe Dante

Eminent film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum describes Joe Dante as "one of the most personal directors working in Hollywood" and calls his work "the perfect refutation of the idea that popular American comedies have to be simple." During this selected retrospective, you’ll be able to revel in how Dante consistently creates giddy entertainments that are also sophisticated satires. We'll augment the Wexner Center screenings, which will focus on Dante's most explicitly and subversively satirical work, with additional screenings throughout the month at the Gateway Film Center.

Matinee

Introduced by Joe Dante

(Joe Dante, 1993)

Wed, Oct 6, 2010  |  7:00PM
Film/Video Theater

Joe Dante introduces and discusses Matinee, perhaps the film he was born to make, an unspeakably delightful tribute to moviegoing, youth, and the golden age of sci-fi that also affectionately sends up small-town American fears, nuclear paranoia, and movie business schlock merchants.

Set in Key West during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the film focuses on a 14-year-old boy who's obsessed with the imminent visit of B-movie king Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman in a brilliant performance, based on real-life gimmick-movie master William Castle). The purpose of Woolsey's visit is to promote Mant!, a bargain-basement production about a man who mutates into an ant. (See the rare expanded version of the film-within-the-film at our October 1 screening.) Also with Cathy Moriarty, Kellie Martin, and appearances by Dante's regular "company" of character actors including Dick Miller, Robert Picardo, Kevin McCarthy, and William Schallert. (99 mins., 35mm)

After the screening, Dante talks about the film and his career with Tim Lucas. Lucas, a Cincinnati resident, is the editor of Video Watchdog magazine, which used to publish a regular column reprinting Dante’s early film criticism.
Matinee Trailer