The Fanatic

You could respect this movie on John Travolta's performance, which is pretty good. He plays the role somewhat believably, and isn't necessarily over-acting or anything like that. Co-stars like Devon Sawa also turn in some good performances as well. Everyone is reasonably believable.

The cinematography is also pretty okay. Scenes are well staged, well lit, and generally the movie looks good, I suppose. On a production level, everything works!

But it's still a very difficult movie to watch. Travolta plays a very innocent character named Moose, who is on the autistic spectrum, and the whole movie is essentially about beating up on him. When it's not beating up on Moose, it's asking you to feel sorry for him. I can't remember a single moment where the movie portrays this guy as a human being. Every single scene is an uncomfortable test of your empathy as everything that can go wrong, does, to the point where it becomes an unrealistic spiral.

As far as concepts for a movie go, that could work, but The Fanatic does not have the subtle touch required to broach the subjects it attempts to tackle. It tries to avoid making Moose look like a monster, but it's still mean spirited and dehumanizing. It's like 88 minutes of watching bullies pick on a nerd, both directly and indirectly, and I found that hard to sit through. Moose is presented almost as a circus side show act, where you're meant to gawk and point and feel pity. This is a movie that revels in second-hand embarrassment.

I could not shake the sense that former musician and Director Fred Durst was working through some issues, and he's admitted the movie is based on personal experiences. I'm sure he's dealt with some pushy fans in his life, and that sucks for him, but this seems like a poor way to express that.

And things don't get any better. Moose continues his downward spiral, constantly making the worst possible decisions, to the point where it almost becomes a cartoonish self-parody. Moose's autism is used as an excuse to wave away even the most absurd plot twists, and it all comes to a peak in a climax I would describe as "frustratingly convenient." I don't know what this movie was trying to say.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got, as the credits rolled. This is a cynical movie at best. It offers no justification for why it exists. It says nothing. It's an excuse to make you cringe for an hour and a half. Maybe you like that, but it's not really my style. Though the rest of the film may be competent, as a story, it just sucks.

Avoid The Fanatic.

This movie does to Travolta what Battlefield Earth did to movies.

Naturally, I was anticipating this indie, because I love it when the good old guys take on odd and crazy roles nowadays - no sarcasm whatsoever. It was concerning to see the value of metascore and user reviews, but, nevertheless, I found "The Fanatic" to be quite alright. Let me elaborate.

I have to say I believe that my 6/10 is stemming out partially from a purely subjective viewpoint - objectively it's probably barely average. What I got from "The Fanatic" was good and pulpy fun, offering us nothing new or original plot-wise, but moving at a steady pace and using Travolta as its main attraction. Mad props to John Travolta, the role of a above 40 years old mentally challenged hardcore horror fan & fanatic memorabilia collector was filled from bottom up with Travolta attacking the role with a sure hand. Like, sue me, but I thought it's a great, truly effortful performance. The fanatic making us the fanatics out here. All jokes aside, it was Travoltas performance that kept this movie above the water & that's arguably a fact. From a technical standpoint "The Fanatic" doesn't excel much, but in no way it's below average regarding the cinematography & editing. To be honest, stylistically there were a few cool elements, like the occasional time-lapse drawings with the sharp violin original score pieces. The plot is pretty straight forward & gets wobbly towards the end, where I saw the reason for why a lot of people called out the director for hating mentally challenged people. I'm pretty sure those accusations are not correct. While the ending is hard to decipher, translate the point of it (if there's any), I don't feel like it's a completely tasteless ending. It's different, which is what we, the audience, ask a lot for.

To sum it up, "The Fanatic" is miles form masterpiece, but it's a solid entertainment with it's emotional or extremely awkward (in a good way) moments, and, most of all, with John Travolta who's doing the best he can. My rating: 6/10.

Utterly Ridiculous. Laugh out loud funny. Like WTF?!

I know this will be ignored. But I hope it doesn't.

Imagine this: John Travolta still as Moose.

Fred Durst as the paparazzi girl.

Nicolas Cage as the Final Destination actor.

Please.

I BEG you to think about it.

Some movies really need the strangeness of The Nic. And, well... if some people don't agree with this statement, this disaster is here to prove them wrong.

Even the thought of this possibility makes me rase my rating from a 2 to a 3.