Premiering at SXSW London, “Stans” dives deep into what it means to follow Eminem’s career like it is personal — because, for many fans, it is.
This documentary does not follow the usual playbook. Directed by Steven Leckart and produced by Shady Films, Paul Rosenberg, and Tony DiSanto, the film flips the perspective. Instead of letting critics or music historians define Marshall’s legacy, it puts the fans in charge of telling the story, and unapologetically so. The film hands the mic to the people who have been following Marshall’s every lyric, beat, and breakdown for over two decades: his fans.
As Mashable UK’s Shannon Connellan writes in her review, the doc “leaves you in no doubt that if you’re not a fan around here, you can GTFO”.
There is no narrator. No talking heads with hot takes. Instead, a series of fans introduce themselves with a knowing “My name is…” and go on to share what Eminem’s music means to them. They walk us through his discography, reflect on their own lives in connection to albums like “The Marshall Mathers LP” and “Recovery”, and even guide us through Detroit landmarks tied to his story. One standout is Zolt Shady, who has been a fan since 2001 and gives viewers a heartfelt tour of Eminem’s old stomping grounds.
The film tracks Marshall’s rise from Detroit’s battle scene to international stardom, touching on early mixtapes, signing with Dre, and 8 Mile’s Oscar win. But everything is filtered through fan memories. Each chapter ties back to how a song or moment hit a listener personally. It is emotional, obsessive in the best way, and deliberately tilted toward admiration.
Eminem himself appears throughout, sometimes looking back with pride, other times with unease. He addresses the intensity of his fanbase directly: “It’s cool that people care, but it’s weird because it’s me”. He talks about fans treating him like a best friend he has never met. And he compares it to how he once idolized LL Cool J who also appears in the film.
But Stans does not shy away from everything. It briefly acknowledges the toxicity that can come with celebrity obsession, especially through the lens of the song “Stan”, which still anchors this story of fandom. There’s a moment where Eminem explains parasocial relationships, and a montage of fan letters gets intense. Still, the darker side is only a small part of the film. The focus stays on fans who found strength, connection, and even survival through his music.
The documentary does not spend time on his more controversial lyrics or past scandals, and it does not invite opposing views. The only music journalist in the film is longtime Eminem biographer Anthony Bozza. Critical voices like the New York Times’s Maureen Dowd are mocked instead of engaged. It is clear: this is Eminem’s documentary, his people.
There is a particularly raw section on Proof’s death and Eminem’s battle with addiction, with Dre reflecting on how Marshall’s honesty about mental health helped push a new kind of vulnerability in rap. “I was an open book”, Em says in the film. “And sometimes you want to be able to close that book”.
That honesty, and the connection it built, is what “Stans” is really about. It is a love letter to the fans who kept reading, even when the pages got dark.
And if you are not into it? As Eminem says in the final moment of the film: “You can suck a fat dick”.
