blaxploitation films

According to King Cohen, a new documentary from director Steve Mitchell, the filmmaker Larry Cohen is a bulldozer of creative force who broke through “the rules” of Hollywood to create a slew of films that shattered racial stigmas and skirted the boundaries of good taste. By looking back over the life and career of this writer-director-producer, Mitchell reveals an inspiring story that like his subject, manages to provide pure, unadulterated entertainment. I had heard rumors of this documentary through passing mentions on some of my favorite movie podcast and blogs over the last few years, but the name Larry Cohen meant nothing to me. Even after hearing familiar movie titles like It’s Alive, The Stuff and Phone Booth, I realized I had never actually seen his work. We all make mistakes. As a voracious consumer of movie industry related documentaries, when a film opens with an anecdote by JJ Abrams about meeting Larry Cohen at a Los Angeles bus stop, it becomes instantly clear that it’s for film nerds. You