Joe Donte doesn’t disappoint. This week’s screening was “Matinee.” John Goodman was a perfect fit for this gimmick selling filmmaker. Based in Key West during the height of the Cuban missile crisis, we are shown a movie within a movie. I love these types of film, and I feel it solidifies a connection that allows you to get invested in basically two story lines at the same time (I really want to see “Mant”). The panic scenes of mobbed grocery stores and women grabbing all the toilet paper they could hold was something that prior to what we as a nation are dealing with, I thought I’d never see. I am not comparing our current pandemic to the cold war, but the instincts shown on film have some similarities.

My favorite scene in this movie was the guy with the fall-out shelter freaking out that the bombs have been dropped. The series of events that lead this to occur were truly comical from the outside looking in. this guy was absolutely frazzled even when we first met him. The fact that he wasn’t seeing the movie and that he was instead in his office awaiting the news to get into his shelter, was the downfall of him. The “rumble rama” and the loud noises led him to believe what he was manifesting into the world was true. He was truly scared, which ironically was a result of Goodman; he can scare people even if they’re not even watching the movie.

I thought that this film represents the gimmicks and the town to town exploiter artists so well. We have obviously seen so many great representations of these artist, but I feel for me, this was the most entertaining and relatable example. I grew up watching shows like “Roseanne,” and I have been excited to see John Goodman act ever since those years. I was so excited leading up to this screening because I knew that John Goodman was going to be the main character. In my opinion he was great, and fit the bill perfectly.

Presentations this week were really great. Once again, I was confronted with a movie I will not watch, and a movie that is one I love watching. The Breakfast club was a movie that I watched around 9^th grade. My high school history teacher was infatuated with it (especially the final still frame of the fist pump to the air) and I am glad that he passed that love on to us. I was never really fully aware of the cult status of this film because I never gave it too much thought. But the presenter proved otherwise, and did a great job.

Dr. Sleep is a movie that I have seen a lot of publicity for, and the trailer still makes me jump. There is something about words appearing on surfaces and not knowing how they got there with any logical explanation that just absolutely creeps me out. Nevertheless, Jeremy did a good job of confirming it’s cult status, along with solidifying my need to not see this movie (Maybe I will someday.)