King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen

I was asked to review King Cohen. The New documentary directed by Steve Mitchell. This was a labor of love. Never have I been so excited and blown away by a documentary. I grew up during the time of Mr. Cohen's reign at the box office. Larry is responsible for such classics including Bone, Black Caesar, It's Alive, Q: The Winged Serpent, and The Stuff. He was also jump started the Black exploitation films of the 1970s, and lil people know was the screenwriter for the Hollywood classic Phone Booth. He was also responsible for getting Kiether Sutherland to play the voice of the Sniper.

His Black Exploitation movies were my favorite. I would run to see the double features down on the notorious strip on 42 ND st. Were these classics played. Black Ceaser and Hell up in Harlem starring the great Fred Williamson. He has inspired me so much and after watching this and the behind the scenes see he is a lot like me. His well known style of hit and run and lil prep while filming has become a staple of mine, There are behind the scenes which will keep everyone entertained.Steven explores so much of this Hollywood Icons life from his humble start as a young kid growing up in NY loving movies. He would sell stuff on the street and when he had enough money would spend the rest of the day at the movies. Those days movies ran all the time and you can easily spend all day at the theater. Which Larry Did. He would watch any type of movie and loved them all. They would kick him out when it got dark because of his young age. He knew at an early age he wanted to get into the movies. His next stage was a stand up comedian. Larry loved comedy and was a stand up for awhile. He loved being around people and creating material to perform. That lead to a writing job for TV shows after getting hired at a studio, After doing a few successful TV scripts most notably The Invaders. He started clashing creatively. He complained Directors were destroying his scripts. So he said time for him to start directing. His first movie was called Bone. Yaphet Kotto as a thief that breaks into a wealthy families home. He pushed the envelope with this one having a interracial sex scene which was very daring in the early 70;s. But this got me aware of this young filmmaker and had everyone interested. Larry's hey day was pre 911. Were he loved filming in his hometown of NYC. He would do things that you could not do nowadays. He had car chase in Halram. Chase scenes on on sidewalks, shootings on Manhattan streets. Chases in airports. These were all done with no permits or permission and just shot the day the scene was planned. Peoples reactions were real. It was his vision and his way. Nobody else could of pulled this off wit such success. While filming Q on top of the Chrysler building he had actual shoots out with blank shells falling from the top on to street level. These crazy shoots go the attention of the police and were questioned and made the news. Larry most notable entry in the horror genre was the Its alive trilogy most notable the original. It was the scariest and most popular horror series of the days. Even more scary than a lil movie competing against it at the time called The Exorcist. I could gush on and on about this wonderful documentary but want you to see for ourselves. The makes make it like your hanging out with Larry for the day. You get to relax and hear all about his humble beginnings to the present day and the convention. Also what is on he horizon. Larry has the gift to entertain and and tell a story. This is the perfect platform. This is a film students bible on if you want to make a movie with balls follow the Larry Cohen way. Also to the film buffs out there that want to know everything about the King of B's. His story is told through live interviews just for the documentary in an around his lovely house/studio. There are interviews with past actors,producers and everyone else who helped him for-fill his dreams. Classics clips from the classic TV show Branded with Chuck Commons and the show that changed his life Invaders. Also famous stars and other Directors, Producers etc... Martin Scorsese, J.J. Abrams, John Landis, Michael Moriarty, Fred Williamson, Yaphet Kotto, Traci Lords, Eric Roberts, Eric Foster, Rick Baker, Eric Bogosian, Barbara Carrera, Joe Dante, Mick Garris, and many more. But the highlight is to hear Larry recollect the past! I was so happy to watch and when released will be adding this to my collection proudly. Thank you Larry Cohen for such a career and being such an inspiration.

King Cohen begins its theatrical run July 27 in markets including Los Angeles and New York. Special event screenings of the film will also be held throughout July and August in cities including Asheville, VA and Yonkers,NY.

Winner of the 2017 Fantasia Fest Best Documentary Feature Audience Award, King Cohen hails from Rondo Award-winning writer/director Steve Mitchell, whose film and television credits include co-writing the beloved cult horror/comedy Chopping Mall. King Cohen is a La-La Land Entertainment production, in association with Big And Tall Pictures and Off The Cliff Productions. It is directed and produced by Steve Mitchell and produced by Matt Verboys and Dan McKeon.

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.

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.

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.

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.