Directed By Steven Leckart

Starring – Eminem, Dr. Dre, LL Cool J

The Plot – An in-depth documentary revealing a superfan’s intensely personal connection to iconic rapper Eminem and that artist’s profound influence. Explores fandom’s power to forge identity and community.

This film is currently not rated

STANS | Official Trailer | Paramount+

POSITIVES

All mainstream songs attain some semblance of notoriety that allow them to live on in the minds of their passionate admirers for a lifetime, but Eminem’s “Stan”, a term that became legitimized in the dictionary in 2017, became a cultural revolution on the toxicity of fandom, and in Leckart’s documentary behind the subject, the director articulates why certain artists find such a relatable connection to their appreciative audience, eliciting the kind of importance towards the unheard that such a power has in changing lives. This could easily become a self-indulgent passion project on the untouchable magnitude of his ever-lasting impact to the rap game, but in reality it’s actually a career retrospective seen through the eyes of fifteen of his most faithful supporters, and what the music meant to each of the personally, as well as a few prominent celebrities (Which I won’t give away here) with each of them supplanting the sincere significance of their own lives, with individualized conflicts and traumas, that were therapeutically eased in each of them losing themselves in the lyrics of Marshall’s writing providing such an expressive outlet for each of them to cope. Most surprising to the engagement is that Marshall receives far less interviewing focus than those of his adoring peers, but beyond that the thematic dissection on the layers of preconceived fandom that refuses to group everyone together under the same irresponsible umbrella, a refreshingly invigorating take for a movie with such a misleading title to its cause. The discussions themselves speak volumes about vividly fleshing out Marshall’s uniqueness as an artist, both with his unapologetically unrelenting personality and devastatingly fearless lyricism that makes 1998 feel centuries away from the current politically correct landscape appraised in 2025, yet also in tackling so many of the thematic anxieties pertaining to depression and addiction, that so many interchangeable rappers for the time were so reluctant to touch upon, and it points to a far more cerebral spin for the genre and material than was expected in a documentary centering around a musician, appraising justification to a product that feels anything but materialistic in the best kind of ways. On top of this, the film’s presentation isn’t overly dependent on stimulating style to convey a personality throughout its engagement, but it does involve textualized visuals of written out lyrics and to immerse us in the thematic impulses of what’s being discussed in the foreground of the many pocketed narratives, while also tapping into a seemingly limitless archive of MTV footage chronicling the entirety of Marshall’s 27-year odyssey as an artist. Considering I was a teenager when Eminem’s hype broke into the mainstream, there’s a palpable irony to so re-experiencing so many of these initial interviews that makes me see things differently in now knowing the full extent of what he was able to accomplish as a voice for a generation, with an untamed rawness during insightfully explorative questioning that mirrored so many of his confrontational lyrics about bashing pop star darlings of the dominant music scene. Considering Leckart allows the visuals to convey emphasis in the stories constantly being told by our interviewed guests, it grants a far more knowledgeable insight for youthful audiences to experience matters being discussed in real time, with impeccably impressive editing throughout an abundance of moments in the foreground that constantly maintains the shape of the narrative, all the while keeping much of the film’s artistic merits away from graphic animation and snappy transitions that could easily obscure the sincere personality of the project’s intentions. Leckert’s single biggest contribution to the project perhaps is his ability to make the engagement compellingly accessible, despite an abundance of the material pertaining to sensitive subject matters to both Eminem and his distinguished guests, occasionally dabbling in the depths of dramatics, without it dominating so much of the adventurously explorative aspects of such a nostalgia-dependent engagement. This certainly inscribes a palpable poignancy to the project that allows its tone to not feel as one-dimensional as expected, with grippingly articulated moments of adversity discussed with the kind of vulnerability and tenderness of somebody still healing from such deeply personal conflicts, but it’s the inspiration in the music that provides such a comforting ally for these victims to constantly pick themselves back up, in turn keeping the air of the project investing with uplifting elements of strength and resiliency that seamlessly reflect Eminem’s own road of rediscovery within himself.

NEGATIVES

For a straight to streaming documentary, “Stans” hits all of the right places of entertainment and insight, but it’s far from perfect with an occasionally tumultuous execution in gaps that takes away some of the meaningful impact left by the end of its 98-minute duration. For starters, on that aforementioned runtime, the film doesn’t always balance the most of its minutes between various guests and stories, spending far too much time on some, while not enough time on others, and it gives the pacing, particularly during the previously mentioned dramatic arcs of the narrative, a sluggishly persisting element that wipes away much of the momentum of the film’s final thirty minutes, without as much need to finish the project as had during moments that shuffle effectively between Eminem’s meaning into a song and the responses from the fandom giving their own experiences to interpreting it. For my money, the 85-minute mark feels about right for something of this caliber, especially considering so much of the Eminem material is already known to even basic members of his fandom, without anything shockingly revealing to the exploration that gets us closer to the artist than anything ever has before it. Beyond this, my only other problem with the documentary was in such an unfulfilling ending to a closing moment that practically wrote itself, as a result of the lack of subtlety delivered from each of its everyday talking guests. Throughout the film, each of them mention what it would be like if they met Eminem, with one of them even being successful, and it constantly made me think that the rapper would make an abrupt appearance to each of them by the film’s closing moments, in order to appraise a pay-off to their undying fandom. While I’m not necessarily blaming the rapper for this disappointingly unfulfilling aspect to the documentary’s ending, as I’m sure his schedule completely limits opportunity for free time or personal reflection, I think eliciting constant focus on the aspect of almost none of these fans have met him, makes for an effortless to write pay-off to the 27-year journey that would prove most fascinating to the audience, but for whatever reason, the film concludes without attaining such an honorable intention, and it just kind of made the narrative of Eminem connecting to his fandom feel all the less realized in enacted actions, attaching such an underwhelming pay-off to the closing moments of the film that made it feel a bit anticlimactic with its ending.

OVERALL
“Stans” is an entertainingly engaging and poignantly resonating Eminem-based documentary pertaining to the anatomy of obsession, as told reverently and refreshingly from the perception of those inspired by such a cultural trail-blazer in the industry. While the film does feel a bit uneven and regretfully unfulfilling in certain aspects, it does provide a uniquely endearing exploration about the connection elicited between artists and strangers that musically bond us in the trials and tribulations of life, all the while providing a thorough examination of the impact and consequences of fame, for rap’s most decorated superstar.

My Grade: 7.6 or B