Nowhere on the internet has perfected making mischief quite like Tumblr has. Its dramatic tendencies and intense need to troll are part of what has helped it carry on all this time. It meant that it was primed for a pitch-perfect response to Twitter's downfall, but making fun of the spiraling bird app could only be funny up to a point. Those manic energies needed to be directed elsewhere, in a way that brought all its users together. In classic, nonsensical Tumblr style, it was decided that this should happen by creating an entire fandom for a made up movie from the 70s.
Goncharov is a tale that is confusing from the very start. It can be traced back to a post from more than a year ago, when a Tumblr user bought a pair of off-brand boots that inexplicably advertised this fake Martin Scorsese movie on the tag. After it began circulating again recently, another user made a promotional poster to go with the film, describing it as an Russian mafia movie set in Italy that cast famous Scorsese collaborators, like Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. This offered up a whole host of information for the rest of the platform to do what they wanted with, and the rest is fantasy history.
At the time of writing, the movie is the number one trending topic on the site. People are composing music for it, fleshing out the characters (love interest Katya is a confirmed #girlboss, Goncharov and sidekick Andrey have palpable homoerotic tension), and creating artwork and gifsets that show off scenes and plot points. For anyone who has been exposed to the murky depths of fandom culture on Tumblr, the furor around Goncharov is an eerily convincing parody. As in, fighting over headcanons and writing up fake reviews convincing. While we may never get to see this forgotten Scorsese classic, we can still appreciate the effort that went into making it.
