The Fanatic

I guess I used to be a fan of Charles Bukowski and of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

I still admire Bukowski's writing. I wouldn't want to be like him and I wouldn't want to be anywhere near him. I knew someone who sat next to him at an event and found him "not very pleasant". But what gave me real doubts was listening to a CD of a poetry reading he did. I took his work seriously, but the audience on the CD was made up of morons laughing at everything. I didn't want to be one of them.

I later read a biography of him which noted that he couldn't read anything serious at poetry readings in the U.S. He could in Europe, reading in Germany, not sure the audience could even understand him. He slowly started to realize they weren't morons, so he tried reading more serious poems.

In the case of MST3k, I read the message board on their website. People posting there had the idea that the purpose of the show was to punish people for making movies they didn't like. They couldn't enjoy it unless they were picturing the people who made the movies having their feelings hurt. They were angry if they didn't like a movie.

Of course, Rifftrax proved that it didn't matter if the movie was good or bad. They were "riffing" on good, or at least competently-made movies.

Since then, I've tried to avoid being a fan of anything. But then, I'm pushing sixty. Aging may play some role in it.


Wasn't John Travolta's late son autistic? Because Travolta plays an autistic guy in a movie and, according to at least one critic, the movie seems to hate autistic people and people in general.

The Fanatic is being cruelly trashed by critics. And this is Travolta's first movie since Gotti which was universally panned.

According to IndiWire:

The movie stars Travolta as an autistic man named Moose, whose obsession with a horror film actor (played by whatever-happened-to-him erstwhile heartthrob Devon Sawa) leads him on a downward spiral that results in his using, to quote Wikipedia, “his weaponized autism to fight crime.”

Devon Sawa is forty. It's stupid to attack him for not being a teen idol anymore.

According to a critic on RogerEbert.com:

“‘The Fanatic’ hates fans. It hates actors. It hates tourists, shop owners, and servants. It really, really hates autistic people. And it hates you. It’s a movie that thinks you’re an idiot, someone who won’t see through its shallow provocations, illogical behavior, and vile misanthropy.”

I haven't seen the movie. I didn't think the trailer look terrible. I'm not jumping on any bandwagon here. I'm just as happy hating movie critics as I am seeing people who are more successful than me fail.

It might make a good double feature with Big Fan.