Matinee (PG)
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This came out in 1993. Before I watched it in 2022, I wasn't sure whether I'd seen it before or not, but once I did watch it, I was pretty sure I hadn't seen it before. Then I looked at my "period movies I want to see" page and I had written there that "I'm sure I saw this once". So now I have no idea what to believe. Was 2022 my first time seeing it or not? I guess it doesn't matter. Anyway, it's certainly something I've wanted to see (whether again or not) for many years, so I'm glad I've finally done so. I definitely liked it.

The movie is set in 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Coincidentally, a producer named Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman) is about to premiere his new horror film, "MANT!", in Key West, and he thinks the crisis is a perfect time to scare people (who are already scared of real life). He comes to town with his girlfriend, Ruth Corday (Cathy Moriarty), who also stars in his movie. She's not happy about the current state of Woolsey's and her careers. Meanwhile, A teenager named Gene Loomis, and his little brother, Dennis, live on the military base in Key West with their mother, while their father, who's in the Navy, is away on a ship blockading Cuba. The boys are both fans of horror movies, though Dennis is scared of them, and they're looking forward to "MANT!" And Gene befriends another kid his age named Stan (Omri Katz, whom I knew from Eerie, Indiana, though I failed to recognize him here, probably because it's been such a long time since I've seen that show). Stan wants to date a girl named Sherry (Kellie Martin), though he's later frightened into cancelling their date by her delinquent ex-boyfriend, Harvey Starkweather. Gene takes an interest in a girl named Sandra (Lisa Jakub, whom I knew from "Mrs. Doubtfire" and George Lucas in Love). He first sees her at school when she's protesting a "duck and cover" drill, because she knows it's pointless. (She gets this from her parents, who are beatniks, I guess.) They end up seeing "MANT!" together. Gene also sort of befriends Woolsey, who has a bunch of gimmicks to make his movie scarier for theater audiences. And Woolsey needs this preview screening to go well, so that the owner of a chain of theaters will agree to show the movie in them. Otherwise, Woolsey's career could be over. Meanwhile, the owner of the local theater, Howard (Robert Picardo), isn't happy about all the gimmicks Woolsey is installing in his theater. But he's more preoccupied with news about the current crisis, and he's even installed a fallout shelter for himself in the theater. (BTW, he's billed as "theater manager", but I find it hard to believe he'd be allowed to have his own fallout shelter in the theater if he didn't own the place. I suppose I could be wrong, though.)

Well, a lot of stuff happens that I don't want to spoil, most of it during the screening of the movie. It's all very entertaining, and I think the parallels between the horror movie and the horrors of the missile crisis are interesting. I like how the whole plot sort of ties together. And I don't know what else to say. I feel like I'm not saying enough.