Joe Dante was born on 28 November 1946.
Dante made one of my favorite films: Matinee. It is a love letter to exploitation filmmaking. And I really appreciate that. But it also exhibits the problems that make me not much like Dante as a filmmaker.
Joe Dante is the Steven Spielberg of horror. He’s very good. He knows how to tell a story. But his films have no grit. He’s the anti-Tobe Hooper. Or better: the anti-Lucio Fulci. Comparing these directors is hard because Dante has generally had much bigger budgets. But he is what most people would think of as a better director.
My biggest problem with Dante is Gremlins. I like the film. But it is a classic “horror for people who hate horror” film. And since it was first released, I’ve been annoyed by all the people quoting the film to me and gushing about how great it is. It’s not great. It’s not quotable. To be clear, it’s fine — just not much more.
We can’t blame Joe Dante alone, of course. Chris Columbus wrote Gremlins. But I can’t escape the notion that the two men are actually the same man. Has anyone seen them together? But it’s probably just that both men are testicle deficient. That is, they lack balls.
There is nothing wrong with this! People love both men’s films! Hell, I enjoy many of their films. The Adventures in Babysitting poster hangs proudly on my wall (more because it is an awesome poster). Columbus has never made a horror film, of course. I’d give him a pass if he hadn’t written The Goonies.
But Dante? I can’t forgive a man who has made a number of films that could have been great but were instead just profitable. But like I said, Matinee is great. It’s still very much a Joe Dante film. But it works for me because I was kind of that kid. And I still am. The truth is, Dante probably is too. The economics of filmmaking is terrible. And I can’t blame him for choosing a profitable and stable career over cult stardom. But I can still grouse about it!
But enough of this! Let’s watch Matinee!
Image cropped from Dante and Elizabeth Stanley attending the 66th annual Venice International Film Festival in 2009 by nicolas genin under CC BY-SA 2.0.
I remember that poster! Shue swinging on a rope like Tarzan or something. Painted posters were definitely the best (the ones for the Corman Poe movies were all great).
What bugs me about Dante is he’s definitely got a subversive side but generally chickens out on it. Although that’s not uncommon for the era.
What a great Goodman role! Someday people are going to realize how much of one of the best all-time treasures he is. I think they always have known, they just took it for granted (large guy is loveable). He is something special indeed.
It features Shue climbing up a wall with the kids hanging on or climbing behind her. I thought the film was cute. But the poster’s better!
I love Cathy Moriarty in it. Actually, I just love Cathy Moriarty! I have a thing for abrasive women! But she and Goodman are great together. It’s a very believable relationship. Another thing I love is Dick Miller and John Sayles as Goodman’s thugs. And the backstory of Miller coming to collect money from Goodman, and Goodman getting him to be an actor for him. Truthfully, I could do without all the kid stuff. But it’s very well done. And, for the record, The Howling is one of the most watchable werewolf films ever made. I really don’t like werewolves. They are even worse than vampires! (Well, they were worse than vampires; vampires in film have gotten so much worse recently!)
I wonder if anything about the Dick Miller thing is true? If not, I’m sure there were stories like it which were.
One additional thought; when I looked at Les Diaboliques, I noticed a STRONG similarity between a famous bathroom scare shot in that movie and a very effective one in The Tingler.
Well, critics like pointing out that Hitchcock really admired Les Diaboliques, and had a scary bathroom scene in Psycho. But they never mention The Tingler!
Do they think that only “artistes” like Hitchcock paid attention to good foreign movies? I’ll bet you somebody like Castle would have paid attention to other people doing good scary things.
Critics tend to dismiss Castle without knowing much about him. Before going independent, he was a journeyman director. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, he was grinding out multiple films each year. He directed 7 that were released in 1954 alone! I’ve long wanted to go through all his films. But I’ve had trouble finding them. As I recall, Hitchcock got the idea to do Psycho because he saw House on Haunted Hill. I once got angry because some critic noted that Rosemary’s Baby wouldn’t have been as good if, as originally planned, Castle had directed. The only reason to think this is because Polanski probably allowed Castle (who produced) to get a larger budget. Otherwise, I’m sure the film would have been as good. And I wouldn’t have to feel weird watching a film directed by a rapist.
My experience with people in Hollywood is that they are all watching foreign films. Their biggest concern is that someone will come up with something new and not be able to jump on the bandwagon. So I’m certain Castle was watching foreign films!
How many films TODAY are remakes of foreign films? Quite a lot!
I guarantee you Castle saw Les Diaboliques. The scenes are so similar, it’s impossible he didn’t. (Or the writer did, or both.) And what’s wrong with that? These are two films whose audiences aren’t likely to overlap… except in weirdos like me. And I enjoyed the scare both times! The Tingler puts enough of a twist on it to make it still work.
The search for credit in a field where every innovation is marginal! Doesn’t make a lot of sense. But as we’ve discussed, the most powerful people in Hollywood think they are doing something more important than curing cancer.