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Fantastic Fest capsule: ‘Comic-Con: Episode Four: A Fan’s Hope’
Ending a fanboy celebration of genre film with a documentary about the mecca of fanboy exultation is a pretty meta way to conclude Fantastic Fest. It’s also a rather fitting one.
Director Morgan Spurlock’s ‘Comic-Con: Episode Four: A Fan’s Hope’ takes a behind-the-scenes look at the convention in San Diego that over the last 41 years has become a one-stop shop for fanboys of all stripes. What began as a convention of about 150 people in 1970 has exploded into a branded, corporate behemoth. Fortunately, the documentary is not a vintage-footage filled slog about the history of the annual gathering.
Instead Spurlock follows several attendees on the pilgrimage from their homes across the country to Southern California. Skip is a wanna-be comic book artist who tends bar at the nerdiest (and possibly coolest, depending on your love of multi-sided die) spot in Missouri. Backed by the loving support of his geeky parents, he sets off to show his portfolio at the convention.
Eric Henson is a graphic artist and military man living in a small town in Montana with dreams of a career in comics. Chuck Rozanski is (as all nerdy collectors likely know) one of the kings of comics, his Mile High Comics warehouse store in Denver home to millions of issues. Holly Conrad lives in a small meth-riddled town in Colorado and makes incredibly intricate costumes with her friends and harbors hopes of one day making them professionally.
All of these folks make their trips fueled by a shared and unabashed passion for comic culture and imbued with personal dreams.
Those who have been to The Con, as it is repeatedly refer, will recognize the massive halls of costumed nerds on parade, flooding the halls in hopes of seeing their favorite graphic novel artist or comic writer or possibly even touching the hem of the great Stan Lee’s robe.
While these obsessives may seem odd due to the nature of their passion, one often associated with children or overgrown children in their mother’s basements, the film does a touching job of showing that Comic Con is really about folks coming together as a family, or as one attendee puts it, a country of their own.
Sharing the passions of the would-be (and possibly will-be) artists are established figures such as Joss Whedon and Eli Roth, luminaries whose nerdy passions mark them as equals among this tribe of misfits. Spurlock intersperses commentary from these notables along with random fest attendees to give the festival context and explain how comics can captivate our imaginations and inspire ideas of heroism in us all.
The film also dutifully notes what to many must be a sad change in the festival. Over the decades Comic-Con has slowly moved away from being comics-centric to a fest used by multinational corporations to shill their products to a juicy target demographic. But despite the corporatization of Comic-Con, there is no denying that at it’s heart is an unbridled passion for a culture colored by the bright colors of superheroes and the dark workings of fantastic villains.
And speaking of heart, the most moving storyline of the film is the tale of James Darling and his girlfriend Se Young Kang. Having met at The Con in 2009, Darling hopes to propose marriage to his girlfriend at the 2010 festival. All with the help of an engagement ring fashioned after ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and an assist from Kevin Smith. The only thing a geek loves more than geek culture is other geek’s who share their love.
Much like his previous film, the title here is probably too cute by half, but is fitting in its nod to ‘Star Wars’ and the hero’s journey. Spurlock can be a funny and charming presence in his films, helping lead viewers along like a cinematic tour guide, but his absence from ‘A Fan’s Hope’ is certainly a breath of fresh air. One can imagine footage of this doc with Spurlock leading the camera through the crowd, approaching unwitting nerds in Darth Vader costumes to ask questions as the camera cuts to the director’s feigned looks of surprise. Fortunately none of that is here. Spurlock shows incredible restraint in this amusing and often tender look at a singular cultural phenomenon that may be evolving but has its feet firmly planted in a world of fantasy.
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