Corman's World (2011) Review

The film world is so full of important and influential people (and of people who THINK they are important and influential) that one can easily get lost in the shuffle. However, there are some that simply stand out without a doubt, like the schlockmeister himself, Roger Corman. A documentary about him seems like a sure thing, so how does Corman's World fare?



First off, if you've never heard of Roger Corman (which is incidentally something that is being worried about by one of the interviewees in the film), let me give you a quick rundown. Roger Corman is one of the most prolific producers and directors of film history, making hundreds of low-budget films on a dime, shaping the exploitation and event movie genre and starting the careers of directing legends such as Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, as well as the careers of acting superstars Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone.

Naturally, having such an impact means there's a ton of background information that can be covered in a documentary about his life. That's why you can probably imagine my surprise at finding out that the runtime of the film is just about 90 minutes and that's also when I started worrying.

To give the movie credit, it is fairly ambitious in its scope, trying to fit quite a broad body of work into a single documentary. Unfortunately this proves to be a major problem. We never really get a good idea of Corman as a person, we are only presented with some of his more outstanding pictures in combination with the usual floating heads making hollow statements about how great and important Corman is to them. Of all those interviewees only a couple of them (including Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda) come off as genuine, the rest just seem to jump in for the credit and to throw their nice, comfortable and uncritical five cents into the ring. That might be nice for Corman's and their own ego but it doesn't give the audience anything to chew on. After only a handful of those there's some frustration moving in: We get it! Corman is a good guy, please move on!

And that is ultimately the film's most serious flaw. There is no critical voice to be heard, nothing that really sparks the audience's interest (other than to check out some of his more nutso films like The Trip or Death Race 2000), the film just ponders around on the surface without ever diving deeper into its subject matter. Corman is an important part of American cinema and he deserves better than just a simple, uncritical and shallow love letter disguised as a documentary. If you're one of the few who are unfamiliar with him, then this might be a nice introduction to him and his films, but it doesn't offer anything new or insightful to the rest of us.