A combination of the awesomeness of The Wrestler and the terrifying mood of the trailer brought me to this movie. Robert Siegal has his eyes on sports, but he's not making the feel-good sports movies about the American Dream and hope winning over the underdog. His sports movie is the world of self-destruction, or in this case, of ultimate passion met with ultimate lack of ambition, as he explores the life of a person with absolutely no motivation but for what serves his team.
Patton Oswalt plays Paul Aufiero, a man who loves his New York Giants. He loves the Giants so much, in fact, that he has nothing else in his life. He lives with his mother, he has no intention of getting a girlfriend, he has a dead end job that he's nevertheless completely satisfied with, and he does nothing all day but think up some excited rants to give out on his local fan radio station and drive to the Giants ballpark to support them (though not monetarily, as he just watches the television in the parking lot). When he and his one and only friend Sal (Kevin Corrigan) see the Giants' quarterback Bishop getting gas, they decide to follow him to get a chance to meet him. Unfortunately, their lack of social grace and a miscommunication results in a violent confrontation and Paul ends up in the hospital, Bishop cannot play anymore, and the season--and thus Paul's sense of reality and self-esteem--go down the tubes in rather short order.
I was expecting disturbing drama but a lot of this movie is actually quite comedic, and it seems to me that Siegal is mostly working character portrait this time around. The good thing is that Paul Aufiero is neither a caricature of sports fans in general, nor does he stand-in for, for instance, Giants fans or anything like that. He is entirely his own individual character, and it's the lack of familiarity with him that gives most of the drama since it makes his decisions quite unpredictable. However, Siegal is, between The Wrestler and Big Fan, obviously great at creating empathy for his characters, so the drama definitely draws you in. I would have preferred a darker story simply because that is what I went in expecting, but it turns out that even the more comedic moments really do make sense in terms of who Paul is and what he would do in those situations. In the end, the movie is surprisingly nonjudgmental about his decisions, and he still manages to lose the all of nothing he had and still be happy (because he needs nothing else). So, good for Paul? The movie itself is certainly a win.
--PolarisDiB
Patton Oswalt plays Paul Aufiero, a man who loves his New York Giants. He loves the Giants so much, in fact, that he has nothing else in his life. He lives with his mother, he has no intention of getting a girlfriend, he has a dead end job that he's nevertheless completely satisfied with, and he does nothing all day but think up some excited rants to give out on his local fan radio station and drive to the Giants ballpark to support them (though not monetarily, as he just watches the television in the parking lot). When he and his one and only friend Sal (Kevin Corrigan) see the Giants' quarterback Bishop getting gas, they decide to follow him to get a chance to meet him. Unfortunately, their lack of social grace and a miscommunication results in a violent confrontation and Paul ends up in the hospital, Bishop cannot play anymore, and the season--and thus Paul's sense of reality and self-esteem--go down the tubes in rather short order.
I was expecting disturbing drama but a lot of this movie is actually quite comedic, and it seems to me that Siegal is mostly working character portrait this time around. The good thing is that Paul Aufiero is neither a caricature of sports fans in general, nor does he stand-in for, for instance, Giants fans or anything like that. He is entirely his own individual character, and it's the lack of familiarity with him that gives most of the drama since it makes his decisions quite unpredictable. However, Siegal is, between The Wrestler and Big Fan, obviously great at creating empathy for his characters, so the drama definitely draws you in. I would have preferred a darker story simply because that is what I went in expecting, but it turns out that even the more comedic moments really do make sense in terms of who Paul is and what he would do in those situations. In the end, the movie is surprisingly nonjudgmental about his decisions, and he still manages to lose the all of nothing he had and still be happy (because he needs nothing else). So, good for Paul? The movie itself is certainly a win.
--PolarisDiB