MATINEE (1993) **1/2 Cinema as low-brow performance art is a concept that hasn't received the attention it fully deserves, with the exception of the Rocky Horror cult. John Goodman is a true believer, and is willing to dress juvenile delinquents up in giant ant suits to prove it. The children who love the monster flicks, it must be noted, are either following in the footsteps of their parents or surpassing them: the adults writhe in a perpetual dance of fear in the face of nuclear power, Soviets, Cubans, Kennedy, homegrown communists, evangelicals, vague military orders...and they answer their fears by curling their children up in a physically heretical perversion of the fetal position in school hallways. Lisa Jakub is wonderful as the little "communist" girl who doesn't think that curling up in a ball is going to do any good, and is punished for her observation, but she raises a very real question. If the red diaper babies were so good at spotting the bullshit being sprayed on the masses by the most conservative elements of the American government, and they were, why weren't they equally adept at calling Stalin on his? I've been told that they didn't believe the corporate American media-and there's a lot to be said for that-but it sounds more like an investigation tragically lacking enthusiasm. David Halberstam calling the Kennedy cabinet "the best and the brightest" is a poor joke of spectacular magnitude, but it's also fair to say that identifying anyone representing the greatness of the American legacy at that time is difficult. Ever notice how films of the era invariably focus on the Cuban Missile Crisis, rather than the Bay of Pigs? It's not meant to be a political movie, mainly, but the other child actors are boring so it's easy to linger on subtext and innuendo when Goodman isn't onscreen. The overt reality is that the film is one big Mant (half-man/half-ant, because of dental work gone wrong) in your face, and if you're up for that you'll enjoy it. I'd like that grocery cart flick, too.
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