Every year Fantastic Fest manages to pull in some great genre related docs and this year is no exception thanks to King Cohen, which tackles the life so far of triple threat (Writer, Producer, Director) Larry Cohen. The film is a celebration of the man who not only singlehandedly ignited the Blaxploitation craze with his film Black Caesar, but is also has been a champion of independent genre cinema directing such cult classics as Q — The Winged Serpent, The Stuff and It’s Alive. Through an impressive roster of talking heads we get a tiny glimpse into the life of the “the John Cassavetes of exploitation”.
The film opens with an anecdote with none other than J.J. Abrams who recounts a chance meeting the director when he was 15 years old and how Cohen surprised him by recalling the run-in after J.J. had mentioned it. The film is full of both the kind of stories you would probably expect recounted about Cohen, and some that shed light on a much different side of the director. Of course get to hear how he recruited the steeplejacks working on Chrysler Building to shoot machine guns into the NY skyline at an imaginary monster for Q, causing police to think the building was under attack. But you also hear about how Cohen would seek out talent Hollywood had left behind like of Betty Davis and Bernard Herrmann and not only employ these icons but befriend them as well.
The film begins with Cohen’s first life as a stand-up comic and when that didn’t quite pan out he got a job as an NBC page, which led to his big beak in television. After getting his first script produced on the Kraft Theatre it was only a matter of time until Larry got tired of the repetition of television and made the leap to feature films. A common theme that begins to surface here is Larry’s problem with producers and just plain authority in general, which forces him out on his own into independent cinema. When his first film Bone falls short of the mark, Larry finally finds his footing in genre beginning with Black Caesar, which starts him on a path to a career directing 21 feature length films.
Featuring interviews with Rick Baker, Joe Dante, Michael Moriarty, Martin Scorsese and Fred Williamson, King Cohen while delving into some of the drama behind the scenes, overall the film keeps the focus positive. While also going into a bit on the social commentary of his films the only thing King Cohen struggles with is balancing the entertaining anecdotes and sound bites with the deeper discussion on the reoccurring themes present in Larry’s catalog that almost begs a separate film altogether. This is also due in part to the size of the director’s filmography, which sadly leaves some films on the cutting room floor altogether like Maniac Cop, which thanks to a rumored remake and Blu-ray release has had a lot of fans rediscovering this bizarre gem.
King Cohen is a doc that sadly due to the sheer breadth of material doesn’t have the option of delving too deep into its subject. While folks not aware of Larry Cohen’s contributions to exploitation cinema are sure to be intrigued, the film still has more than a few bits that will come as news to even his most devoted fans. While still just skimming the surface King Cohen is still a captivating snapshot into the career of one of the most prolific writer/director/producers still churning out projects to this day. It also maybe the only documentary that you will ever see where Martin Scorsese is interviewed alongside Tara Reid and I think that fact alone says volumes about the film’s subject.