Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream (2005)
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89% of critics liked it
(9 reviews) -
71% of users liked it
(2,545 ratings)
Stuart Samuels's popular documentary Midnight Movies: From Margin to Mainstream grounds itself in the thesis that six revolutionary American motion pictures - Night of the Living Dead (1968), El Topo (1970), Pink Flamingoes (1972), The Harder they Come (1972), The Rocky Horror Picture Show… More Stuart Samuels's popular documentary Midnight Movies: From Margin to Mainstream grounds itself in the thesis that six revolutionary American motion pictures - Night of the Living Dead (1968), El Topo (1970), Pink Flamingoes (1972), The Harder they Come (1972), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and Eraserhead (1976) - invented the concept of "midnight movies" and thus permanently reshaped the American film industry per se and the composition of the average U.S. film audience, creating a new "brand" of viewer. Samuels and his team tell the story of this odd subgenre as it evolved, peaked in popularity, and then faded gradually from view. The bulk of the picture consists of a myriad of interviews with the directors of these films per se (John Waters, Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Lynch, Perry Henzel, George Romero - Jim Sharman appears in archive footage only), cast members, theater owners who found their business reinvigorated by this trend, critics such as Roger Ebert who reflect on the era, and of course the films' fans. The documentary also features extended clips from the movies and period news footage about the rise in popularity of the said titles. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Directed By
- Stuart Samuels, Egbert Van Hees
- Written By
- Stuart Samuels
- Genres
- Documentary, Television, Special Interest
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Aug 5, 2005 Limited
- Studio
- Stuart Samuels Productions
Critic Reviews
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Robert Koehler, Variety
Samuels' own enjoyment for midnighters comes through in his funky visual design -- visually spunky for a clips-and-talking-heads film -- and in the energetic editing.
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Ben Walters, Time Out
It's a celebration of cinema-going as a 'ritual experience or trip', a communal adventure with no real equivalent in the exquisitely atomised YouTubeverse.
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Duane Byrge, Hollywood Reporter
In this affectionate glimpse into those countercultural times, filmmaker Stuart Samuels has compiled an engaging distillation of those nocturnal filmic emissions.
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Philip French, Observer [UK]
An extremely interesting film.
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Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
Enjoyable, if blandly celebratory.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
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Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
- Lou Adler
- Ben Barenholtz
- Perry Henzell
- Alejandro Jodorowsky
- David Lynch
- George A. Romero
- Robert Shaye
- Peter Suschitzky
- Douglas Alan Mann
- Roger Ebert
- Richard O'Brien
- John Waters
- J. Hoberman
- Larry Jackson
- Jonathan Rosenbaum
- Salvatore Paul Piro
- Bill Quigley
- Seth M. Willenson
- Chuck Zlatkin
- Mick Rock
- Jim Sharman
- Stuart Samuels
