Film

Matinee

Name: Matinee
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1993
Cast: John Goodman, Cathy Moriarty, Simon Fenton, Omri Katz, Lisa Jakub

Parody

Joe Dante's love letter to B-movie showmanship, set during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. John Goodman is a traveling huckster bringing his ridiculous creature feature to a small Florida town, mixing cheap thrills, genuine heart, and affection for cinema's cheapest pleasures. It's a film that knows exactly what it loves and refuses to apologize for it.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you have a soft spot for affectionate filmmaking about old movie houses and the showmanship that sold them, where the gags come from love of schlock rather than mockery.

Skip it if you want sharp, fast jokes, since its pleasures are gentle and nostalgic, and its creature-feature gimmicks may feel more charming than thrilling if you never loved those films.

What it asks of you: It unspools at an easygoing, unhurried pace, spending long stretches on small-town life, so it rewards patience and a willingness to settle in.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Grifters1990

Con artists and elaborate schemes, but grounded in real danger and moral decay. Franny's world is small, intimate, and merciless in ways Matinee's carnival never gets close to. Essential and unsettling.

But The tone is acidic and cold. There's no warmth here, no one to root for, and it moves through its betrayals with clinical precision that some will find exhausting rather than compelling.

Gremlins1984

Dante at peak form, a film about monsters that's actually a film about American small-town life and what happens when rules get broken. Funny, scary, visually inventive, and it understands how joy and chaos are neighbors.

But The tonal shifts are violent—cute becomes grotesque in seconds. If you need genre movies to stay in lane, this will feel schizophrenic. Some of the '80s effects have aged rough.

Ghostbusters II1989

Not the obvious choice, but Dante's influence runs through it: a film that understands that spectacle and heart aren't enemies. It's goofy and sincere at once, with real stakes underneath the rubber suits and slime.

But It's very much a product of 1989 and relies on that specific New York energy. If the first one didn't click, this won't rescue it. The plot is genuinely thin.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Matinee

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Wicked City1987

Where Matinee celebrates America's B-movie tradition with warmth, this is Japan's equivalent—genre machinery elevated by undeniable talent, but stranger and darker and made under completely different rules.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri's anime feature—cyberpunk, erotically charged, visually dazzling, and utterly committed to ideas that mainstream American cinema wouldn't touch. A film that could only exist in animation and Japan's 1987. Pure craft and imagination.

But The sexual content is explicit and female characters exist partly as objects. The plot is simple to the point of incoherence. It demands patience with something completely foreign.

Jaws1975

Spielberg's masterclass in tension and character, where the real drama is the three men in a boat. Like Matinee, it understands that great entertainment is about people, not just what you show them.

But If you're coming for modern pacing, prepare to wait. The shark doesn't appear until well into the film, and the movie trusts that you care about the men instead.

Creature from the Black Lagoon1954

The original creature feature that B-movies spent decades imitating. Shot in 3D, beautifully lit, genuinely atmospheric. You'll see every DNA strand connecting it to everything Woolsey is selling.

But It moves slowly by modern standards, and the scientific nonsense is thick on the ground. The female character exists primarily to scream and be rescued.

Tremors1990

A film that loves its premise, its monsters, and especially its people. Funny, scary, ridiculous, and completely unashamed about all three simultaneously. Pure entertainment instinct.

But The humor is broad and relies on a specific kind of '90s action-comedy sensibility. If you find that tone annoying, every joke will land wrong.

Innerspace1987

Joe Dante doing what he does best—a film about spectacle, innovation, and the pure joy of cinema invention. Technically inventive, wonderfully cast, and brimming with affection for the enterprise itself.

But The plot is bewilderingly complicated and nobody cares about untangling it. Some of the '80s effects work is garish rather than charming.

Carnival of Souls1962

Released the same year as the Cuban Missile Crisis, this is lo-fi horror from the genuine B-movie era—atmospheric, genuinely eerie, and made with real craft on a shoestring budget.

But The pacing is glacial by design. The main character makes baffling decisions. It takes commitment to settle into its rhythm.

The Ballad of Little Jo1993

Released in the same year, this is a small, character-driven period piece with real moral weight. If you loved the human core beneath Matinee's spectacle, here's where that instinct leads in another direction.

But It's quiet, slow, and asks for patience with a protagonist who makes terrible choices. The Western is not a natural comedy, and this doesn't try to be one.

Memories of Murder2003

Both are period pieces that love the texture of their eras and use genre conventions to say something true about human nature—but where Matinee is a love letter to spectacle, this is an autopsy of a nation's trauma.

Bong Joon-ho's historical thriller about a serial killer investigation during South Korea's authoritarian '80s. Visually inventive, methodically structured, and it finds tragedy in incompetence and circumstance rather than villainy. A masterpiece.

But It's nearly two hours and requires total concentration. The ending offers no catharsis. It's a film about failure that makes you sit with that failure.