{"id":2835,"date":"2018-09-21T17:31:30","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T21:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=2835"},"modified":"2018-09-21T17:31:30","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T21:31:30","slug":"dot-ep71-matt-leslie-writer-producer-of-summer-of-84-plus-new-comedy-from-jo-firestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2018\/09\/21\/dot-ep71-matt-leslie-writer-producer-of-summer-of-84-plus-new-comedy-from-jo-firestone\/","title":{"rendered":"DoT EP71: Matt Leslie, Writer\/Producer of Summer of ’84, plus New Comedy from Jo Firestone"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was lucky enough to see Summer of \u201984<\/em><\/a> a few weeks ago in Salem, Massachusetts, not far from where Matt Leslie grew up in Ipswich. I had not heard of the film before, but it was sponsored by the Salem Horror Fest<\/a>, and I trust the tastes of the folks who run that, so I went into it with no hype, knowing virtually nothing about it. I greatly enjoyed the film. It has the same vibe as movies I enjoyed, oddly enough, as a teenager in the mid-eighties like The Lost Boys<\/a><\/em> or The Goonies<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n

Davey, a suburban teenager, thinks his neighbor, Mackey, might be a serial killer. One night when he\u2019s out playing a game with his three best friends, Davey happens to see a kid in Mackey\u2019s kitchen. That gets Davey\u2019s conspiracy theorist mind working. Kids have been going missing lately, and when the next one looks like the kid he saw through Mackey\u2019s window, Davey is convinced. But who would believe him? Mackey is a cop and by all outward appearances, the perfect suburban neighbor. Naturally, the only people he can turn to are his friends \u2013 the nerdy Farraday, rebel Tommy, and the good-natured big kid, Woody. <\/p>\n