King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen

Steve Mitchell has captured a wonderful piece of work revolving around one of cinemas greatest pieces of work as Mitchell takes us from the beginnings of Cohens career on TV in the 60s to his prolific work on Blaxsploitaion through the 70s and 80s to writing one of my favorites of the 90s (Phone Booth) by tackling each project one by one. We hear some really interesting stories from some of the guys who knew him best and get a real good personal loving look at Larry Cohen and his long spanning career.

There's nothing earth shattering here, just a nice look at a career of interesting movies. You don't really get much in the way of behind the scenes info for all of them, but the stories you do get are fun. Sort of breezes by, but it will make you want to track some of the movies down, so it's a win for that.

I confess that I have never seen a Larry Cohen movie. But I really enjoyed this documentary about the maverick film maker. The extraordinary amount of archival footage, along with the commentary through interviews with a variety of people who are familiar with Larry Cohen and the way he works, made this an easy-to-watch and thoroughly entertaining documentary. Hearing the comments from industry insiders (directors, actors, cinematographers, etc.), as well as Larry Cohen himself, gives the film a contemporary feel and a sense of both the seriousness and playfulness of his approach to film making. Definitely worth watching.

The documentary is a classic cut for cut recollection of a truly unique and paramount figure in modern cinema. Larry Cohen if a frontiersman for the independent film community and "King Cohen" establishes this fact with informative and entertaining biography and interviews. The most value to this film comes in the form of first person accounts from Mr. Cohen himself offering back story to some truly monumental cult classic film and television projects given to us from his sheer genius of creativity.

"King Cohen" keeps with the standard documentary format, but still manages to be compelling and entertaining beyond your typical shtick seen in DVD extras, or basic documentary styles. With a fangasm worthy amount of first person accounts and anidotes from Larry about his work, plus the exploration and acknowledgement of the volume of his genre-bending films, "King Cohen : The Wild World Of Filmmaker Larry Cohen" is a great documentary, one truly a long time coming - and decades in the making...and it's about time!

Since reading Kim Newman's magnificent Nightmare Movies book,I've been interested in learning more about the late auteur Larry Cohen. Looking down the list of titles on Shudder,I stumbled on a doc that I could not find anywhere else, dedicated to Cohen.

View on the film:

Skipping past his childhood with just a few comments and photos, director Steve Mitchell bites into juicy archive footage of the TV shows Larry Cohen got his start on, with insightful narration over the clips capturing Cohen's ability to see a job opening, along with a growing desire to break out of the restrictions placed on TV programs at the time.

Opening with J.J. Abrams talking about his memories of meeting him as a teenager, Mitchell gathers a excellent selection of interviewees to discuss Larry Cohen's impact, from Martin Scorsese on the way Cohen shot New York in, to fellow indie genre director, the super cool Fred Williamson talking about the push and pull relationship they had when working together.

Covering each era of his TV/film works with archive footage and behind the scenes clips, Mitchell's extended interview with the film maker goes into his gleeful guerilla style film making, in some cases coming up with scenes on the spot! Featuring a touching tribute to the last time he met Bernard Herrmann, Steve Mitchell in turn presents a delightful tribute to the unique career of Larry Cohen.