Fanmail

Directed by Sean Fisher

2025

Opening with a guitarist head-banging on stage as he solos on his "axe", Fanmail tells us of a young rocker called Eric who hopes to make it big in the music biz.

An interview with a local radio station frames the story as we flash to a moment when Eric runs into one of his heroes (Archie) in the street and we find out the “stadium rock” event was at a local community centre.

As Eric jams at home, he becomes increasingly frustrated as he sees his big-haired persona constrained by the small town he lives in.

Checking his post each day he eventually receives a letter from Archie - whose earlier encouragement on the street seems to have changed to a harshly-worded take-down of Eric’s dreams.

These letters continue from his idol whose insults get worse and worse but there are hints that maybe these things aren’t as true as Eric’s view is making out. And after a barrage of similar correspondence, this constant mockery leads to a violent outburst and we realise the true predicament Eric’s got himself in.

Style wise, Fanmail seems a good template for the handheld style seen in other fly-on-the-wall music docs - both real-life and parody. However, there’s a fair few bits of static camera work which is detriment to the film’s energy.

And surprisingly, there’s also quite an absence of sound for something so music focused. There’s hardly any background tunes (or the radio) within scenes - and Eric doesn’t have music playing in his rock-poster covered room which seemed a little odd.

It would be easy to convey some of his frustrations with a couple of audio tracks that match his state of mind. This could replace many of the things we get told by him via dialogue as he speaks to himself. Alternatively, a background score could add a bit of atmosphere too.

Ryan Thomson does well with the material but this could be heightened with some of the technical tweaks mentioned above. But overall, with some of the areas smoothed off, there’s plenty of promise here for future projects from the actors and crew.

That said, the film moves from a musical parody of sorts into a much more serious place with later revelations recontextualising the events we’ve seen unfold. Without giving away too much, the radio interview is more of an interrogation and even Eric’s hair now seems to less represent a rocker than it does a person rocking back-and forth now dealing with inner demons.

With the long-awaited Spinal Tap sequel finally arriving this year in cinemas, there’s probably no better time to release something similarly rock themed. However, Fanmail takes a far more serious look at the price of fame with its good central idea and its well-intentioned disturbing tone slightly undermined by a rough and ready production.

★★★

3 / 5

Michael Sales

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