The movie that John Travolta loved and everyone rejected available on Netflix

A legendary director and actor named Eric von Stroheim once said, “In Hollywood you are only as good as your last movie.” For this reason, everyone clings to their successes and walks away from their failures. John Travolta He had two great stages in his career. First the fury of saturday night fever Y grease at the end of the eighties, where he added several interesting titles to later lose popularity.

He reinvented himself between 1993 and 1994 when he achieved a blockbuster comedy like look who’s talking and immediately after his memorable role in pulp fiction. After that second success, he dedicated himself fully to blockbuster movies until he moved on to class B cinema again, where Fanatic (2019) is included.

Fanatic tells the story of Moose (John Travolta) is a man with autism who lives doing street acts on Hollywood Blvd. Moose has developed an unhealthy passion for movie stars, in particular for his ultimate idol actor Hunter Dumbar, a star of not very good but very successful movies.

His best friend, Leah, is a paparazzi who helps him get closer to his admired actor without realizing what could happen. When Moose wants to get Dumbar to sign an item of clothing he bought at a movie memorabilia store, Moose’s clumsy ways collide with the actor’s moodiness. That’s just the beginning.

When the film was released it was a resounding box office flop, downright painful, and was flatly rejected by critics. The spectators did not like it either, which ended up closing any chance of recovery. However, contrary to what usually happens in Hollywood, the film fills John Travolta with pride. What is the reason for this? The reason is that Travolta chose to play a man with autism in tribute to his son Jett, who died in 2009 at the age of 16. The young man was autistic and had Kawasaki disease, which led him to die of an epileptic seizure in which he hit his head in the bathtub.

This role was for Travolta a way to get closer to his memory. It was also the last film she made before the death of her wife, Kelly Preston, in 2020 from cancer. With that load the actor played Moose, regardless of the results.

Although it seems strange, the film is inspired by real events. The director of the film is Fred Durst, famous for being the lead singer of the band Limp Bizkit. Durst had a harassing fan who dressed the way Moose does in the movie. It’s just the foundation as the movie is going in a completely different direction. It is not an easy story to watch, because the amount of uncomfortable scenes that it has are many. Some may argue about whether the character was for a slightly younger actor, but because of the above it was difficult for Travolta to give up playing him.

The film has certain echoes of two Martin Scorsese titles such as Taxi driver and The King of Comedy. Although there are several previous movies about stalking fans, it’s with Scorsese that the script seems most akin, even if it doesn’t quite match the director’s sophistication.

If one sits down to see Fanatic Thinking of it as Travolta’s worst movie, you’ll find that it isn’t, and that it even has some interesting elements. If you also remember how important it is to the actor, maybe everything weird about the movie makes some sense. In any case, it is a rare and annoying film, both when it fails and when it succeeds.

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