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We have many terms for people who are crazy enough to claim an impossible or ridiculously improbable relationship with someone else. If the "relationship" is with a person indisputably fictional i.e. Captain Kirk or Spider-man, we simply call them delusional. If it's with a celebrity or other public figure we call them obsessed fans or stalkers when the obsession gets dangerous. When the imagined relationship is with a god or demigod, we call it religion.
Anyone remember 80s mallrat-turned-one-hit-wonder Tiffany? Jeff and Kelly surely do. They're the subjects of "I Think We're Alone Now," a portrait of two torn-up-from-the-neck-up wingnuts who've picked Tiffany as the target of their obsession. Jeff is a 50 year old virgin with Asperger's, Kelly is a thirty-something transwoman whose gender dysphoria is quite obviously the least of her problems. These two are a documentary maker's dream. Let the camera roll and you've pretty much got a movie just by letting them be themselves.
While intending to simply make a movie about these two incredibly deluded individuals, the filmmakers have inadvertently delivered a rarely-so-intimate treatise on religion-based delusion. By substituting the words "Jesus" or "god" in place of "Tiffany" in the pair's fantasies and soliloquies, one starts to notice that it's the exact same language used by fevered Jesus junkies when describing their "relationship" with their imaginary friend(s).
The parallels between Jesus enthusiast and obsessed stalker abound in this film. The imagined relationships and rampant cognitive dissonance are the most glaring examples, but there's so much more. For example, they both pray. Jeff uses his psychotronic helmet (I'm not making this up) to mentally commune with Tiffany from his basement, Kelly has imaginary text sessions with the singer. Collections of holy iconography and texts are everywhere in their apartments. There's even the hint of a holy war brewing during the ill-conceived meeting between these self-appointed popes of two different sects of the Church of Tiffany.
Jeff is an evangelist who'll proudly announce to anyone who will listen that he's Tiffany's bestest friend and quotes chapter and verse about her life and his imagined role in it at the drop of a hat. Kelly's version of the religion is of a more deeply personal nature. Kelly knows that she and Tiffany will one day have a romantic relationship and seems to be growing increasingly upset that it hasn't quite happened yet. Unfortunately, this romance will not take place in a fantasy afterlife making Kelly the far more potentially dangerous of the pair. In fact, by the end of the film Jeff has headed down the path of apostasy. While allowing that he and Tiffany will always be dear friends, he's switching his affections to another large breasted 80s celebrity.
I've barely scratched the surface of this film's exploration of delusion, religion, cognitive dissonance, and just plain old everyday lunacy. It's really got to be seen to be believed. For atheists, antitheists, and other right-thinking individuals it's a not-so-gentle reminder of the dangers of socially acceptable and government-enabled insanity. For the Jesus junkies, it provides a mirror in which they can hopefully see themselves as more stable people see them and gain a better understanding of just what all the concern is about.
There's one issue that the film doesn't really touch on. While Jeff and Kelly might be creepier than a French kiss from Grandma, the mere fact that Tiffany is still performing is in itself quite troubling...
score 9/10
lupis_noctum 26 October 2013
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2903755/ |
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14-3-2021 11:21:04