Saturday

There is a word in the movie industry that I've been hearing more and more of recently. I'm not sure if it's new or old, but it feels new, and I don't know where it came from. Perhaps you've heard it: 'fanboy'. I first read of it in a description of Quentin Tarantino, saying he made 'fanboy films'. Since then I've heard it used of other directors, such as Robert Rodriguez, and I think Craig Brewer (director of Black Snake Moan). It seems to refer to people who like old movies and make new ones in homage to them. Of course this has been happening for a long time, but perhaps the important missing adjective here is 'excessive'. They have an excessive like of, and excessively reference, previous films. Their movies become just a stream of allusion, indecipherable to the uninitiated. I wouldn't say this is true, but this is the perception. 'Fanboy' seems to refer to a movie without any serious sense, that is style alone, and the previous films these directors like are not necessarily classics, but more often pulp, exploitation, comic or violence. It is, of course, used as slightly derogatory, but I think it can easily be turned into a positive thing.