I Think We're Alone Now

I didn't learn much here, except for seeing a shallow portrait of an unusual older Asperger's man and an intersex person as they struggle with life and their particular obsession. I came away with a feeling of sadness without any depth or wisdom gained (and I do very much like many "sad" documentaries/films, but this one was more like an overlong episode of Catfish without the humorous hosts.)

This film is more important than ever, specially in the era we live nowadays filled with celebrity obsessions and stalkers. The documentary does a fantastic job with its limitations, but I wished it could spend some time talking to specialists about mental health.

"Biggest fans" can often be innocuous, but many times they cross the threshold from adoring to creepy. The latter is how I would best describe the two fans in this film.

The documentary outlines the quest of both these fans to meet Tiffany and attend one of her concerts. The film itself is quite fair in their portrayal of the fans, allowing themselves to share details of their lives and not setting the stage to brand them as stalkers. Through the fans' own words and actions, they set that stage for themselves. Jeff is the seemingly more harmless of the two, in that he is on the autism spectrum, and seems more to be living in his own dream world than present a safety risk to Tiffany. Kelly, however, shows signs of possible mental illness, referenced by jealously exhibited towards Jeff, and several things said during the course of the film which most people would consider at least slightly unnerving. I would be worried for Tiffany's safety in the lone company of Kelly.

I came away from this film with a feeling of uneasiness and a new understanding for stars who have to endure stalkers.

I Think We're Alone Now is a documentary by Sean Donnelly about two mentally-disturbed individuals obsessed with '80s pop star Tiffany. This is one of the most interesting documentaries I have ever heard of. I almost bought it at Salzer's as soon as I read it because I was so intrigued, but it was like $28 for some weird reason and I only had $6. :( I finally got to see it and I was not let down. It was just as interesting as I thought it would be, possibly even more, in fact. I thought I was just going to witness the infatuation of one middle aged man, but I actually got to meet a 31 year-old hermaphrodite who saw Tiffany in a vision she had during a coma and now believes she's "the one." Damn. I could not look away from this movie. I was exhausted, but I never turned it off. It is completely fascinating. It's funny, but you feel bad for laughing because it's most likely at something weird that one of the stalkers says. I don't like laughing at them but their thoughts are so unbelievable. I never got the impression that Donnelly was making this film so that we could laugh at these people, it was never like that. I think the purpose of the film is more to show people who these stalkers are, to see their reasoning and understand their disease. I don't think they're sick monsters, they're just lonely.

My problem with it was that it didn't flow smoothly. It was a pretty choppy film. You'd be watching, and then randomly it would switch to the middle-aged man, then randomly back to Kelly, the hermaphrodite. It was all over the place bouncy, staccato. It was still enjoyable though.

It's a very emotional film. It's tragic to see these people, outcasts of average society, believe wholeheartedly that they can capture the heart of a celebrity. They have no doubt that if Tiffany just had a conversation with them, that they could convince her to marry them and live together. It's bizarre. It's so crazy to see these mental illnesses in action. I was flabbergasted by almost everything they said. They really live in a delusion, and it's really amazing to witness. Tiffany is actually in the film a lot too, and it's interesting to see how she handles them. She's very sweet.

I do recommend this film. It's a great watch, incredibly difficult to put your attention elsewhere as it plays on your screen. I may buy it someday, for an occasional re-watch to make me laugh and feel thankful for my sanity, but it's not a priority. It's only about an hour long so even if you don't like it, you won't feel too bad about the time spent with it. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

Both these deluded nut cases should be locked up before they go off the edge.