The Biggest Fan Movie Review: An average comedy on the fleeting and absurd nature of fame

Maria Torres’ comedy film flatters to deceive. Its humorous take on the absurdity and insanity of fame, especially in the times of social media, is well conceived. There are moments in the first thirty minutes that can be construed as funny. The zany people who come waltzing into lead character Lana Cruz’s (Kate del Castillo) life has her in a figurative pickle. Her successful career in Hollywood comes to an abrupt halt when she accidentally slaps an overly enthusiastic fan. Not just is she fired as the lead of a popular TV show, she is cancelled by social media at large. Fans quickly turn into haters, with #IHateLanaCruz going viral. Her agent convinces her to put out a video of her side of the story, but the trolling and abuse are relentless. This part of the film works rather well, showcasing the fleeting nature of celebrity in the digital age. It is tinged with a decent amount of humour up to this point, with the anti-Lana memes and videos taking on absurd proportions. A year passes, with no one in the industry willing to touch her with a bargepole. In this period, we learn of the strained relationship with her teenage daughter. Owing to career aspirations, Lana has missed some of the major highlights of the former’s life. Just when she is all set to attend her kid’s graduation, her agent visits with an offer. A comeback arthouse film that will require her to travel home to Mexico. Guilt-ridden for having let her daughter down once again, she leaves for the shoot.

Director – Maria Torres

Cast – Kate del Castillo, Diana Bovio, Gabriel Nuncio, Ana Gonzalez Bello, Dariana Delbouis Hugo Catalán

Streamer - Netflix

What The Biggest Fan achieves in a commonplace sort of way, at least in the beginning, is capturing the sheer craziness of the life of an actor. The demands are unprecedented and unreasonable. A genuine mistake (as in the case of Lana) is misconstrued to be entitled behaviour, when in fact, stars are accosted by deranged people all the time. Her initial moments in Mexico are fairly humorous too. She meets a pool cleaner named Polly (Diana Bovio) at her residence for the film shoot. The woman turns out to be a superfan, and before you know it asks if she can become her assistant. On the first day of shooting, Lana is warned about her moody and sensitive director, Aristóteles (Gabriel Nuncio). There is hushed talk of the word “tragedy” amongst the crew. Embodying the qualities of an eccentric genius caricature, the man’s vision and overall persona are nuts. Unhinged Polly has, by this time, assumed the role of Lana’s assistant as well as her social media manager (having promised to improve her image online). Not just is she hilariously disruptive on set (talking boisterously during takes, inviting the crew to parties, etc.), she throws Lana’s already fractured existence into a tailspin. Up to a point, there is a laugh to be had if you invest time in the plot and its oddball characters. Lana seems to be the only one who is balanced. But as the story progresses, it loses one’s imagination fast. The caricatures just don’t hold up. The superfan being a menace and the parallel cinema director being bonkers are tropes that work for brief periods of time, not for a whole film. Besides, if nothing new is envisioned, things go from fairly funny to repetitive and boring in an instant.

The whole lost in the wilderness part, as Lana’s climactic scene hangs in the balance, is not just predictable but pretty unnecessary too. Lana and Polly hate each other, then there’s a moment of truth, and all is eventually forgiven. Come on! Lana opens about her maternal guilt, not having been there enough for her daughter over the years. Polly confesses that Lana’s hit show brought her dying mother much joy in her final days. When the humour gets stale, they go with predictable drama to hold the viewer’s attention. From its initial promise, The Biggest Fan becomes increasingly simplistic. It ends up being a failed attempt, through and through. If the film was a twenty-minute skit, there are enough novelty laughs for it to sustain itself. When the same formula is used for a 90-min feature film, the writing has to do better. At best, The Biggest Fan is an average effort. Kate del Castillo isn’t half bad in an ordinary script. But truth be told, if it weren’t for the early burst of the absurd, the film would have been unwatchable.