First Independent Pictures | USA | 91 minutes
By Miles Trahan
Robert Siegel clearly has a “thing” for the seedy underbelly of sports and sports fandom. Last year’s excellent The Wrestler, which Mr. Siegel penned, dealt with Mickey Rourke’s bruised and battered Randy “The Ram” Robinson with a deft and kindly touch but didn’t gloss over the more dubious aspects of Randy’s profession — a once A-list professional wrestler now forced to duke it out in shady underground arenas for meager pay, hoofing it to autograph a handful of glossy eight-by-tens in an empty “convention center” (a dressed-up gymnasium, natch) or jamming staples into his forehead to the delight of a cheering crowd. Siegel’s directorial debut Big Fan, as it were, analyzes what it means to be on the opposite side of that same coin — the super fan who jaunts hundreds of miles to show up to these unceremonious signings, who places a profound importance on his heroes or his team as if his exploits directly impacted them, or vice versa.
As the film’s bumbling protagonist, Paul Aufiero (a surprisingly revelatory turn by comedian Patton Oswalt) is by definition a “super fan.” “His” team is the New York Giants; his room is plastered with Giants posters and memorabilia, he sleeps under Giants-branded sheets, and on the weekends he and pal Sal (Kevin Corrigan) trek out to home games for the privilege of watching broadcasts of the game in the stadium’s parking lot (decked out in full Giants regalia, of course). Paul’s life is more or less uneventful; he lives with his foul-tempered and typically irate mother (Marcia Jean Kurtz) in a shabby apartment on Staten Island, and toils as a toll booth attendant at a parking garage, where he spends more time drafting what amount to little more than love letters to “his” team than doing any actual work. In fact, the only times Paul seems truly happy and “fired up” are when he reads these letters aloud as a regular call-in on a late night sports radio program, where he’s treated almost as a guest (or someone with the clout to be ranting about how well “his” team will pound another’s into submission, at any rate). Paul’s pontificating makes him an enemy of Philadelphia Phil (played largely as an ominous, taunting voice by Michael Rappaport, much like The Wizard hiding behind his curtain in The Wizard of Oz), and spawns a rivalry that reaches near-Shakespearean heights by the film’s third act. Simply put, Paul is a fanatic, an obsessive who puts the good of “his” team before everything else, for a very simple and ultimately meaningless payoff — a fleeting sense of satisfaction.
Of course, Paul’s devotion is tested. When a confrontation with (fictional) star quarterback Quantrell Bishop (Jonathan Hamm) takes a violent turn, Paul finds himself torn between doing what’s good for him and doing what’s good for the team. Should he sue the man who quite nearly beat him to within an inch of his life, or take the “some harm, no foul” route and let the unprovoked assault slide to ensure that Quantrell leads “his” team to a successful playoff season? For a guy like Paul, this is quite a conundrum. Despite the desperate bids from friends and family alike to take legal action, Paul knows it would hurt the team — “his” team — and he’s not about to forsake his duties as a super fan for the empty promises of cold, hard cash and retribution. Even if it kills him Paul couldn’t possibly put his own well being over that of the team’s, and it’s this sad realization that slowly eats at him for the remainder of the film; it drives Paul to have a meltdown after a petty personal attack by Philadelphia Phil and seek the vengeance he’s denied himself by other means, leading to a show-stopping conclusion that had a packed audience at the New York premiere holding their breath in unison for a gut-wrenching ten minutes plus.
That Siegel waits until the climax of the film to truly show his hand — and both stun and relieve the audience in doing it — is a testament to his ability as a filmmaker, and the raw power which drives his impressive debut. Though at face value Big Fan — the creation of a former editor for The Onion and headlined by a gifted funnyman — may seem like a rather light-hearted comedy of manners, it has less in common with Celtic Pride than with Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. Like those films, Siegel’s is unafraid to plumb the depths of fandom and misplaced obsession without ever losing it’s most valuable asset: It’s charm.
9 out of 10
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