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John Travolta has had a remarkable career. Glancing through his filmography, you’ll find drama, comedy, and Disney animation. You’ll find directors like Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarantino. But his latest film, director Fred Durst’s The Fanatic doesn’t exactly live up to the star’s bigger, award-contending roles.
The Fanatic stars Travolta as Moose, a socially awkward but entirely earnest movie lover who lives in Los Angeles. Moose divides his time between his favorite memorabilia shop and the streets of Hollywood, where he poses for pictures with tourists, dressed as a British bobby. He enjoys collecting autographs, and he’s especially excited to add a new one to his collection: his favorite thriller star, Hunter Dunbar (Devon Sawa). But when their meeting goes badly—and he’s left without his autograph—Moose becomes more and more obsessed with his favorite star.
With some help from a paparazzo friend and a star maps app, Moose closes in on Dunbar. Like so many other fanatic movie lovers, he knows every role, every film. He imagines that, if given the right opportunity, they could even be good friends. But when his eagerly anticipated meet-and-greet turns into a nightmare—and he finds his hero to be less than friendly—he decides that he’ll stop at nothing to get the autograph that he feels he’s owed.
Slowly and in a completely roundabout way, the story becomes more tense and troubling. As Moose deals with stressful situations in his own life along with the strain of being insulted by his Hollywood hero, he enters a dark downward spiral, though he seems almost completely oblivious to what he’s doing.
Somewhere in here, there’s a captivating story about stardom, fandom, and obsession. Unfortunately, though, the execution is just a mess. Travolta seems unsure of how to play the character, and Durst’s directing is random and erratic. For the most part, the film moves slowly—and it isn’t especially interesting. But then something in the character—and the film itself—seems to snap, and everything goes completely off the rails in the most over-the-top (and generally laughable) of ways as it races to its entirely perplexing conclusion.
If you love John Travolta for his roles in films like Grease or Pulp Fiction or even Bolt, you might want to stick with rewatching those instead of seeking this one out. In fact, it’s probably just best to forget that this one (and many of his other recent films) exists.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
