In February 2022 (2-22-22, to be exact), Corey Feldman released the first single from his album Love Left 2: Arm Me With Love. It was called “Comeback King,” and he directed the video himself. It starts out with a young boy getting beat up at some type of backyard volleyball game. The scrawny kid is knocked over, leaves and dirt kicked in his face. It cuts to a fogged-out soundstage, where we see Corey, in a deep v-neck tee and an unbuttoned ruched satin shirt, sunglasses at the tip of his nose, a lock of hair in his face. He does his best Michael Jackson inspired routine and sing-raps, “You know what time it is? It’s a comeback! I’m the comeback king!” Upon its release, he wasn’t exactly in the middle of a comeback. Rather, he was manifesting one.
Last month it was announced that director Jordan Peele would be curating a series at Film at Lincoln Center featuring a selection of films that inspired, or could help contextualize, his most recent blockbuster, Nope (2022). He called it “The Lost Rider: A Chronicle of Hollywood Sacrifice.” No one expected the inclusion of four films featuring Corey Feldman: Stand By Me (1986), Dream a Little Dream (1989), Friday the 13: The Final Chapter (1984), and the U.S. premiere of an obscure movie from 2004, The Birthday.
Feldman’s career needs no introduction. He was in countless ’80s hits like The Goonies (1985) and Gremlins (1984). He went on to star in a multitude of features with his best friend, Corey Haim, and they became known as “The Two Coreys.” Haim passed away in 2010, and Feldman made a documentary about his story and the darker side of Hollywood called My Truth: The Rape of 2 Coreys (2020). In a life of extreme highs and lows, Feldman has never stopped grinding out movies, TV shows, music videos, and countless viral moments. He even wrote an autobiography, Coreyography, and just dropped a box set of new and remastered tracks.
Lead image courtesy Film at Lincoln Center/Arin Sang-Urai.
