Review by Doug Cooper
Featuring Roger Corman, Peter Bogdanovich. David Carradine, Joe Dante, Jonathan Demme, Bruce Dern, Robert De Niro, Peter Fonda, Pam Grier, Ron Howard, Irvin Kershner, Dick Miller, Jack Nicholson, Eli Roth, Martin Scorsese, William Shatner, Quentin Tarantino
Certification UK 15 | US R
Runtime 95 minutes
Directed by Alex Stapleton
This loving documentary about Hollywood pioneer Corman is a joy to watch. Movie buffs will revel in it, but it's also immensely engaging for more general cinemagoers too.
Corman was the King of the B's, churning out shlock for grindhouse theatres and drive-ins for decades. And he's still churning out schlock, bless 'im. We begin by seeing him shooting his recent opus DinoShark for the SyFy channel. Again it's all done on a vastly limited budget – a deal is struck for the cast and crew to stay at a nice beachfront hotel in Puerto Vallerta while they make use of the sunny seaside location for the movie. The walkie talkies don't work properly and the effects are so shoddy that one can only laugh. Was it ever thus.
Corman was doing the same thing more than 50 years ago with his creature movies such as Monster From the Ocean Floor. Choice clips are shown along with much of his other output – the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations of the '60s, the psychedelic phase with The Trip, the Hells Angels era with The Wild Angels, the blackspoitation '70s movies such as The Big Bird Cage. All raise a smile. His championing of European arthouse fare is also spotlighted.
Now well into his 80s, Corman has aged well – he's erudite, concise and sophisticated, more like a college professor than a sleazy purveyor of cinematic garbage. He has no pretensions about his work and is shy and unassuming considering the influence he wielded – after all, he gave Peter Bogdanovich, Jack Nicholson and Martin Scorsese the starts to their respective careers. All three are among the numerous interviewees and are very entertaining in discussing their working relationship with him. Nicholson chokes back tears at one point, so moved is he in remembering his early days with Corman.
All the participants in fact share fond memories and this winning documentary is a glorious testament to the Hollywood rebel. A persuasive and frequently funny look at a movie maverick who stuck to his guns all the way through his long but not always distinguished career. Thoroughly enjoyable.