I Think We're Alone Now

Sean Donnelly's disturbing documentary focuses on a pair of unstable characters—52-year-old Jeff Turner of Santa Cruz, CA, and 35-year-old Denver resident Kelly McCormick—who share an obsessive passion for 1980s pop star Tiffany. Turner, who says he has Asperger's syndrome, once took his fan worship to a bizarre extreme, trying to present the singer with a samurai sword, which resulted in a highly publicized restraining order (all appears to be forgiven, as Turner shows off recent snapshots taken with the star). Turner insists that Tiffany's family offered but then reneged on a marriage agreement. The feelings of McCormick, a hermaphrodite, vacillate between romantic pining to quasi-religious devotion to mild wishes for a regular friendship. The two fans are brought together to attend a Tiffany performance at what appears to be a gay club in Las Vegas, but their personalities never click (Tiffany herself is only briefly glimpsed onstage; she's never interviewed, nor is any of her music played). In several scenes Turner and McCormick come across as borderline incoherent in their comments about Tiffany, although the pair often seem to be speaking more about themselves, with Turner sketching an aimless odyssey between bizarre delusions and emotional isolation and McCormick following a problematic road to achieving a defined sexual personality. While not easy to watch, I Think We're Alone Now does offer a disturbing and straightforward look at celebrity-fixated mental illness. DVD extras include audio commentaries by the subjects and eight featurettes. Recommended, overall. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)