Fan Girl is really, really good

*This is a spoiler-filled review*

I was one of the few unlucky ones who didn’t get to see Antoinette Jadaone’s Fan Girl when it first debuted last year. It received insane hype at the time, both from the public and critics alike. Charlie Dizon was the toast of social media. It swept the Metro Manila Film Festival, winning Best Picture, Best Director for Jadaone, Best Actress and Actor for Dizon, and Paulo Avelino.

Thankfully, Fan Girl dropped on Netflix this month (stream legally, guys!). After all of the fanfare, is it safe to say that it was worth the hype?

Yes. Yes, it was.

The setting

Few countries can match the crazed fandoms we have in the Philippines. Idol worship borders on religion. Jane (Charlie Dizon) is no different. She’d do anything to show her adoration for her celebrity crush Paulo Avelino (who plays as himself).

She’ll skip school, nearly tear another fan’s arm off over a poster, and borderline faint over a simple wink from her idol. As someone who’s had front-row seats to these happenings thanks to my line of work, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the accuracy.

But what separates Jane from the pack is how she’s willing to go one step further. She sneaks a ride at the back of Paolo’s pickup and eventually ends up at his dark, run-down, Neverland Ranch in the province.

The dilapidated house itself is a mystery – and truthfully, lacks subtlety. Up to this point, the film has done its job to unravel Paolo’s heartthrob persona into his ‘darker’ side.

He curses like a sailor. He does drugs. He pees on the side of the road. These are ‘real’ enough to establish that he’s not immaculate. But the idea that a celebrity of his stature resides in a near unlivable cabin in the woods is a bit too cartoony.

Nitpicks aside, Fan Girl does have great moments of subtlety. The contrast between Jane’s blissful truck ride in the opening scene with her terrified cowering after being chased from the house is, not only well done, but sets up the overarching theme of ‘never meet your heroes’.

The plot

It would’ve been easy to devolve Paulo Avelino into a demented caricature of himself, and for Jane to be the victim who’s absolved of any fault. Thankfully, Fan Girl desires more for its characters.

Paulo is the more obviously flawed of the two. He’s brash, rude, and unhinged. He’s broken over his life choices. He constantly shifts from callous to showing the smallest hint of concern for this underage girl who trespassed into his home.

Jane is obsessed. She fantasizes and initiates. She wants something to happen. She is a byproduct of naive fantasies, a delusional culture of idol worship, and the desire for escapism from a terrible household.

And when these two misguided individuals reach a boiling point by the film’s climax, the question lies less on the controversial act, and more on the factors that led them to such an undesirable deed.

Instead of demonizing one side over the other, Fan Girl strips down its characters, largely through monologues and exposition, to lead up to an age-old question: ‘Do you actually know what you’re wishing for?’

Final thoughts

Love teams and meet cute stories are a dime a dozen in the Philippines. Fan Girl offers one that is doused in reality. For a country that sees its idols as holier than thou figures, it’s a sobering and refreshing watch, to say the least.

Footnotes

• Charlie Dizon is a hell of an actress. Here’s hoping Fan Girl is a sign of bigger things to come
• Props to Paulo Avelino for being willing to stake his name and IRL persona for the role.
• Speaking of Paolo, take a shot every time he says p*tang *ina or a variation of it. See you in the hospital.

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Source: we the pvblic