Stan and deliver: art, books, film and more about super-fandom
The special effects are dodgy, the fans zealous, and Alan Rickman is in devastatingly droll form in Galaxy Quest, an adventure caper that both satirises sci-fi fandom while heeding the joy and heart of these communities at their best. Rickman, Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver play actors who used to be leads in a cult Star Treklike television series, and now spend their days making appearances at fan conventions and lamenting the yesteryears of serious acting. (Rickman staring morosely into the mirror in alienmakeup: “I played Richard the Third.”)
When they’re approached by a group of kooky beings who ask them for help, and lead them to a recreation of their famed starship, the actors don’t think much of it. It’s probably a group of hardcore fans. But up to the skies they boldly go, and they discover too late that their alien fans are all-too real. The days of make-believe are over. Rebecca Liu
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Theatre
Thanks to Harry Potter fans, or “Potterheads”, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was one of the most breathlessly anticipated West End openings in eons. How to live up to the hype? The genius of writer Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany’s production was to give the fans not what they wanted – but what the theatre needed. And that was a show with great heart (Harry as an insecure dad!) and brilliant magic. The stage tricks were kept purposefully lo-fi. But this didn’t make the Dementors any less mesmerising; the invisibility cloaks any less miraculous. Instead, it meant that we – the audience – had to help dream Harry’s magic into life. This collective effort of imagination turned a potential spectacle into a surprisingly warm, intimate and inspiring show, and helped a legion of young Potter fans fall in love with the theatre.
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Music
“What if I told you / I feel like I know you?” Indie-folk songwriter Phoebe Bridgers has long been outspoken about the boundary-crossing nature of digital-era fandom, the difficulties of being there for an audience who want more than you are able to give. Sharing its name with her breakthrough album title, her song Punisher draws on her own love of the songwriter Elliott Smith, and her gratitude that she never got to meet (or “punish”) him in person, content to feel
connected by haunting their shared stomping ground of Silver Lake, LA. In channelling Smith’s gently creepy but deeply beautiful acoustics, it’s no wonder that Bridgers has amassed her own fleet of occasionally overstepping admirers, drawn to the realism with which she builds worlds. Jenessa Williams ***
Book
In Misery, Annie Wilkes is the “No 1” admirer of novelist Paul Sheldon. She is also “dangerously crazy”. This knowledge has come to Paul because she is holding him prisoner. She found him after he crashed his car in a blizzard and, instead of getting him to a hospital, she’s taken him back to her isolated house. Thanks to the crash, Paul’s legs are broken and Annie’s got him addicted to painkillers. She withdraws the drugs if he doesn’t give in to her whims – and soon she is forcing him to write a book for her, demanding that he bring back to life a character he had killed in a previous story. It’s a fantastic premise that allows Stephen King to give free rein to his unique talent for generating fear and disgust. It also allows him to produce an exquisitely disconcerting exploration of creativity, addiction and love. In short, it’s the work of a true master – and guaranteed to turn you into a devoted fan. Sam Jordison ***
Art
Andy Warhol makes a religion of his fandom in his 1962 masterpiece Marilyn Diptych. It was created in the age of stars, rather than mere celebrities. Warhol joins the millions addicted to the faces on the silver screen. To make Marilyn Diptych he repeatedly silkscreened a publicity image for the thriller Niagara, in which Marilyn
Monroe plays a femme fatale. But Monroe had just died. Warhol depicts her on the right panel fading, decaying, her photographic image raw. On the left, he gives her eternal life, in colours as hard as plastic. It is a painting that shocks you into trying to understand pop culture. Warhol’s Marilyn is martyr and saint, Madonna and God. He is an ironist with a broken heart.