The Fanatic

Fred Durst, in my opinion, is not a sharpened pencil in the pen case. He does have a relatively popular band within the genre, but I have no idea what he's doing in terms of filmmaking. The fanatic has a nerd as a jerk in the main role, who has business in the front, party in the back, and is also some form of autistic. And since it's Travolta, it doesn't fit him at all. But the worst part is that you actually don't know what to think about him. Pity him? Or maybe see him as a fool? Hard to say. In every aspect, this is taken to the absolute extreme. I wonder how much of it is based on the truth. (01/04/2024)

John Travolta is Moose, a movie aficionado obsessed with collecting celebrity autographs. Moose obviously has "some" mental disorder, because he is completely self-centered, compulsive, irrational, unstable, has a tendency for stalking people and, last but not least, suffers from narcolepsy. I write "some" in quotation marks, because I have the impression that the director and screenwriter as they are one person simply wanted to portray a mentally disturbed individual and therefore just used whatever the first ideas were that came to mind. The screenplay does not really deal with the mental state of the main character, it just describes it, accompanied by an unnecessary voice-over by one of the supporting characters, there is a very superficial sequence of events that lead to a tragedy of almost epic proportions. I don't really know what the frontman of the band Limp Bizkit wanted to say with this movie, and whether he even had a point to make. However, apart from the fact that Durst makes awfully obvious promotion for his band during one of the scenes, it is a rather bizarre spectacle. The directing and screenwriting are, as expected, a meandering chaotic mess, which can be "so bad it's good" for some people, but the real guilty pleasure here is John Travolta. Watching his acting equals watching a sixty-five-year-old guy act like a retarded child doing well on the first try. So, this is a car crash of a movie that you definitely can perversely enjoy watching. I wholeheartedly wish Travolta has an A-rate comeback, but this is not the way to go. (09/28/2019)

The biggest issue with this film is that it was written and directed by Fred Durst. Every year, he seems to stray further from the mark, and the pinnacle of his absurdity is the scene where Devon Sawa's character enthusiastically plays some Limp Bizkit garbage in his car. Unlike Rob Zombie, who makes quality music and films, Durst seems to be an egomaniac without the talent to back it up. Zombie's films are leagues ahead in quality. Durst, on the other hand, creates terrible music and now terrible films. I never thought he’d direct again, but after many years, he came back, and we all collectively facepalmed. His debut, The Education of Charlie Banks, was decent, but that’s likely because he only directed it and didn’t write the script. Whenever he has complete creative control, it’s a disaster. There was potential in The Fanatic’s premise, but it needed a more talented director to bring it to life. Instead, Durst created an unconvincing, caricature of a character that leaves you unsure whether to pity or despise him. At times, it even feels like Durst is mocking people with mental illness. Despite the overwhelmingly negative reviews, I expected worse. Yes, it's a bad movie, but it's not excruciating to watch. Don’t expect to be entertained all the way through. It picks up slightly towards the end, but there aren’t many WTF moments. Only watch this if you’re curious to see John Travolta play an obsessed, mentally challenged movie fan. Otherwise, steer clear! (06/09/2020)