‘Scary’ looking women always feel like they’re a staple of 1980s culture, especially with wrestling culture, but they felt new then. One of these women was Tracy Vachon, a second generation wrestler who tried out two personas before becoming Luna Vachon. Lunatic: The Luna Vachon Story uses straightforward documentary methods – archive footage and interviews. These reinforce Tracy Vachon’s transformation as Luna. That transformation took place within the wrestling industry during the early / mid 1990s, a time when wrestling didn’t accommodate women or see their potential.

Vachon had a ceiling, and the interviews reinforce the idea that she deserved better, that they see something in her, despite the refusal of the industry back then. This doc is part of a cottage industry of wrestling documentaries and miniseries that viewers see in both fests and streamers. This means that there’s going to be some thematic overlap among the documentaries that are already out before Luna Vachon’s release at this year’s CFF Fest. Most viewers anticipate the interviewees discussing the drug use prevalent in the wrestling industry from the 1980s to the 1990s. What sets Vachon apart is that she’s from a wrestling family, but also a neuroatypical nature that makes her relatable.

There are some stylistic things in Lunatic: The Luna Vachon Story that feel distracting, like the clouds and their symbolism. And yes, interviews carry this documentary, but that doesn’t stop them from being less insightful, handling the topics here sensitively. A lot of the interviewees are female wrestlers who worked with Vachon in a company we now know as WWE. Those wrestlers had the championships that Vachon wanted so bad but never got despite her equal talent in the ring. One can sense the sensitivity during the conversations between the director and her interviewees, which I appreciate.