I love Boy Bands.
Well, a particular flavor of them, more in the mode of New Kids on the Block that N*Sync or Backstreet. Maybe it’s that I came of High School in their peak period and once had an NKOTB bedspread. Maybe it’s because "Step-by-Step" is an absolute bop, and "Please Don’t Go Girl" has everything a ballad needs. Who knows, but also, it’s good stuff.
Fanatic is the kind of short that wakes me up from a slump of those films that never quite hit. In fact, it did it so thoroughly, I ended up watching it twice.
Charlie and Gerald used to be a boy band in the early 2000s, arguably the high-water mark for American Boy Bandery. They fell out of favor, and now, well now things are tough. They need an infusion of cash, and faster than a bunch of quickees behind a dumpster can provide.
And then there’s a contest!
This contest could save ‘em up real good, and there’s stiff competition, and old wounds to overcome.
This is kinda a ‘We Gotta Put on a Show to Save the Farm!’ short, and it does that really well. There’s more layering here, with hilariously dark humor, Behind the Music sensations, and an overall spirit that Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland would have been proud of.
Probably Judy a bit more than Mickey...
The real key to this short is that these are two characters who are utterly lovable, even if they might not be surface likable. You pull for them despite their flaws, and hope that they’ll reach for the brass ring, and maybe grab it. These are characters with charm, and flaws, and flawed charm, and all of that adds up to making us root for them not in spite of those flaws, or even because of those flaws, but with those flaws they carry along the way. That is something a great film does - it lets you see what might be your story as seen through the eyes of someone else.
Not me though; I can't sing.
Andrew Chappelle, who I’ve been seeing just about everywhere the last few years, is great as the co-star and wrote the piece. The direction by Taran Killam (of Saturday Night Live fame, but more importantly, the best thing about Drunk History re-enactments!) is superb, and that entire short plays out as a crowd-pleaser that takes a turn or two before you realise that those are the kind of turns that happen only in a world where songs like "U + Me = Us (Calculus)" or "I Want it That Way" could be a reality. The world we’re given here is far more full of joy and potential than ours, and the lens we view it through is an excellent example of how you film a fantasy without filming a fantasy.
Fanatic shows as a part of Something Funny on Sunday, August 20th at the Hammer Theatre in Beautiful Downtown San Jose, and then again at the ICON Showplace in Mt. View on Friday, August 25th.
https://tickets.cinequest.org/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=292635~a12ee803-7eae-437e-8208-1c4d52da2020&epguid=330ab4d6-45cd-4e3a-a87e-02c739b12dbb&
Well, a particular flavor of them, more in the mode of New Kids on the Block that N*Sync or Backstreet. Maybe it’s that I came of High School in their peak period and once had an NKOTB bedspread. Maybe it’s because "Step-by-Step" is an absolute bop, and "Please Don’t Go Girl" has everything a ballad needs. Who knows, but also, it’s good stuff.
Fanatic is the kind of short that wakes me up from a slump of those films that never quite hit. In fact, it did it so thoroughly, I ended up watching it twice.
Charlie and Gerald used to be a boy band in the early 2000s, arguably the high-water mark for American Boy Bandery. They fell out of favor, and now, well now things are tough. They need an infusion of cash, and faster than a bunch of quickees behind a dumpster can provide.
And then there’s a contest!
This contest could save ‘em up real good, and there’s stiff competition, and old wounds to overcome.
This is kinda a ‘We Gotta Put on a Show to Save the Farm!’ short, and it does that really well. There’s more layering here, with hilariously dark humor, Behind the Music sensations, and an overall spirit that Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland would have been proud of.
Probably Judy a bit more than Mickey...
The real key to this short is that these are two characters who are utterly lovable, even if they might not be surface likable. You pull for them despite their flaws, and hope that they’ll reach for the brass ring, and maybe grab it. These are characters with charm, and flaws, and flawed charm, and all of that adds up to making us root for them not in spite of those flaws, or even because of those flaws, but with those flaws they carry along the way. That is something a great film does - it lets you see what might be your story as seen through the eyes of someone else.
Not me though; I can't sing.
Andrew Chappelle, who I’ve been seeing just about everywhere the last few years, is great as the co-star and wrote the piece. The direction by Taran Killam (of Saturday Night Live fame, but more importantly, the best thing about Drunk History re-enactments!) is superb, and that entire short plays out as a crowd-pleaser that takes a turn or two before you realise that those are the kind of turns that happen only in a world where songs like "U + Me = Us (Calculus)" or "I Want it That Way" could be a reality. The world we’re given here is far more full of joy and potential than ours, and the lens we view it through is an excellent example of how you film a fantasy without filming a fantasy.
Fanatic shows as a part of Something Funny on Sunday, August 20th at the Hammer Theatre in Beautiful Downtown San Jose, and then again at the ICON Showplace in Mt. View on Friday, August 25th.
https://tickets.cinequest.org/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=292635~a12ee803-7eae-437e-8208-1c4d52da2020&epguid=330ab4d6-45cd-4e3a-a87e-02c739b12dbb&
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