Four different women of four different era declare their love of boybands. Through the Beatles, Take That, Backstreet Boys and One Direction, we get the sense of how deep and primal the appeal of a decently non-threatening set of boys with interesting haircuts can be.
Things that are targeted directly at a female audience tend, by and large, to get more pop-cultural mockery than things that are targeted directly at a male audience. And there’s no essential reason why this should be so. Yes, it’s undoubtedly true that a lot of it has some pretty heinous views about gender roles, wildly vague and nonsensical lyrics, and is shallow as all get out, but can you really say male-targeted popular culture doesn’t suffer from some of the same issues? This documentary does the admirable thing of taking all four women seriously (yes, even the wildly screaming teenage One Direction fan who gives the documentary its title) – but it also uses that serious access to ask the question – what do they get out of their fandom, what do they read into it, how does that relate to the rest of their life, and where does this lead them. The film’s clearly made over a number of years, meaning we see fandoms develop and morph as different stages of life approach these women, and this gives this an element of something like the “Up” series, as you get a genuine sense of life being lived on camera. It’s warm and happy and sweet-natured and thought provoking and all the good things a documentary should be. Thoroughly recommended.
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