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FILMTRACKS.COM
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Review of Matinee (Jerry Goldsmith)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you can't get enough of Jerry Goldsmith's sentimental
themes for suburban innocence, in which case this neatly packaged
collection of familiar ideas will please you with its summary of the
composer's early 1990's comedy norms.
Avoid it... if you are expecting to hear the horror source material heard in the story's "film within a film" or are only a casual Goldsmith enthusiast with no interest in the composer's more redundant comedy entries.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Matinee: (Jerry Goldsmith) Arguably one of director
Joe Dante most notable flops, Matinee is a 1993 comedy that
accomplished several of his personal interests. It's a "coming of age"
picture for a group of pre-teen youth, it pokes fun at the B-rate horror
film industry of the 1950's and early 1960's, and it plays on the fears
of nuclear proliferation that were at their height in October 1962, the
time frame of movie's setting. While the group of young actors is more
than sufficient in their roles, it's John Goodman who steals the film as
showman Lawrence Woolsey, a character based upon the real-life horror
movie experimenter William Castle. Attempting to capitalize on nuclear
fears and bring the third dimension of film literally back to theatres,
Woolsey debuts a "movie within a movie" called "Mant" (featuring, as you
would expect, a creature that is half man, half ant) and includes drama
with a live "mant" inside the theatre itself at the showing. With
nostalgia and sentiment at heart, the comedy of the film is an extra
bonus. Keeping that premise in mind, composer Jerry Goldsmith provides a
score that is appropriately light-hearted but not as strictly comedic as
you might first imagine. With the collaboration between Dante and
Goldsmith spanning several decades and including many successful titles,
it's easy for Matinee to slip through the cracks, though the
score has managed to remain a favorite amongst the composer's fans. An
important distinction to make in this soundtrack is between the music
you hear in "Mant" and that which Goldsmith wrote for the original
character drama. The old horror music applied as source is reused
material by Hans J. Salter, Henry Mancini, and others from actual films
of the era and genre, and only in the context of the stomping moments in
a cue like "Showtime" does Goldsmith play with some of that outwardly
Bernard Hermann-inspired knock-off style in his own material. While the
"Mant" music may, for some listeners, be the more memorable cue-by-cue
material in the soundtrack (the "Mant" film is, after all, quite funny),
none of that music exists within Goldsmith's contribution and is thus
absent from the albums.
Goldsmith's original material for Matinee sounds much like the lesser-inspired moments of The 'Burbs from several years earlier, pulling also from the procedures of composer's equivalent contemporary dramas and comedies of 1992 and 1993. In regards to the familiarity of nearly everything heard in Matinee, the score may be less entertaining in a comedy or action sense than other Dante/Goldsmith pairings spanning from Gremlins to Looney Tunes: Back in Action, nine films total by the composer's death. Goldsmith's themes follow the route of sentimentality and nostalgia far more than comedy, with the first half of the score containing little excitement beyond the consistency of the composer's delightful, soft melodies for woodwinds and swooning strings. The themes Goldsmith concocts for these films are very similar, with Love Field, Rudy, and Angie all coming to mind, though in the case of Matinee, his customary electronics typically setting the pace in such circumstances are mostly absent. (Varied percussion serves the same role well.) Relying instead on the slur of a Henry Mancini-era jazz theme and occasional string theme borrowings straight from the style of Moon River as well, Matinee is an instrumentally conservative score. His identity for the kids of the story is a typical lightweight fare for pulsating piano, strings and woodwinds, though the ideas for the theatre owner are far more intriguing. For Goodman's character, Goldsmith inserts some sleazy jazz on piano, making for some greasy moments at the start, complete with carnival pipes at one point, but the idea matures to some outwardly elegant renditions as the show goes on in later cues. The unyielding optimism in this theme may annoy some listeners, but that's the point. Brief militaristic material representing the prospects of nuclear war echo some of Goldsmith's stereotypical war genre techniques in two early cues, but don't expect these entries to exhibit more than passing gravity. An attractive theme for suburbia takes a page from The 'Burbs with its chipper melody over pulsating brass and plucking bass strings. The villain of the tale receives a sleazy jazz identity of minimal malice. The quantity of melodies for Matinee is surprisingly deep, with the final summary cues, "Preview" and "The Next Attraction," stepping through most of the thematic ideas in one strong, eight-minute sequence with adept transitions between melodies and ending on a cute whistling sound effect from Goldsmith's library. (These cues were separated in the film by a song but combined on the original album into one track.) These closing highlights include an expansion of the faster, rhythmic, percussion-driven piano cues that finally provide a small taste of that Gremlins attitude. The latter half of Matinee provides a much more varied and interesting listening experience than the first, melodically conservative half, including some Basic Instinct and Forever Young shades in "This is It." If you could throw the short blasts of B-rate horror music in "Showtime" and the striking military motif from "Mobilization" into the combined, closing trio of cues, you have all the music from Matinee that you really need. The original 1993 album was long among those plentiful Varèse Sarabande releases of Goldsmith's new music in the early 1990's that were too short for the most avid collectors but at least remained available at decent prices on the market for decades. In 2022, Intrada Records tackled the entirety of Matinee in truly outstanding sound quality, revealing a few important, unreleased cues in a loving presentation that is resounding in ambient quality. The mix isn't as reverb-dominant as that of the composer's late 1990's works, but it definitely skews in that direction, lending surprisingly fantastic presence for solo elements. The full score reinforces that the score's style meanders all over the place, especially by its end, and expect for it to test your patience. The bonus tracks at the conclusion of the Intrada product illuminate a few arguably unnecessary alternate takes but also provide the original source recordings unrelated to the older, tracked material, which was not licensed for the product. Goldsmith collectors will find merit in especially the additional early cues in the main presentation, "Mobilization" a clear, albeit short highlight. At the very least, Matinee is a pleasantly harmless score and remains a reliable survey of the composer's comedic tendencies from the era. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
1993 Varèse Album:
Total Time: 38:27
2022 Intrada Album: Total Time: 65:04
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 1993 Varèse album includes no extra
information about the score or film. That of the 2022 Intrada product
contains details about both.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Matinee are Copyright © 1993, 2022, Varèse Sarabande, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/25/98 and last updated 6/28/22. |
