Big Fan: Film Review

This one is dark, funny, entertaining, and almost completely depressing with some great egoist undertones. It's well done and worth a viewing without question.

"Big Fan" stars Patton Oswalt as Paul Aufiero. He is a man with a go-nowhere job (literally and figuratively), one friend, and an undying love for the New York Giants. Paul is thirty-five years old and lives with his mother. He spends his nights at work (a ticket attendant in glass box inside a parking garage) listening to sports talk radio, and writing his rebuttal to what he hears on the talk shows. After his shift ends -- some time after midnight -- he goes home and calls in to the talk shows to spew his comebacks. In fact, it's clear this is the highlight of his day. The highlight of his week is going to Giants' games with his friend and sitting in the parking lot because they can't afford tickets. All in all, this cat leads a miserable existence. One, I fear, I may lead myself some day.

Paul's world is turned upside down when his favorite player and idol, Quantrell Bishop, brutally assaults and nearly kills him. Paul wakes up in the hospital. Soon after, a detective comes by asking questions. Subsequently, what is easily the biggest decision of Paul's life falls into his lap. He has to decide if he will tell the detective what really happened. Paul's testimony will all but guarantee incarceration for his favorite player for three to five years. Doing what's right and spilling the beans means he turns his back on New York.

Paul spends the rest of the film dodging his family, the press, the detective, and ultimately his decision of what he should do about Quantrell. He slips deeper into his world of confusion and depression. At one point, we really see him come loose. And it's during the briefest of scenes. It's remarkable and quite brilliant. In the mean time, Paul has gotten into a beef via the radio waves with a Philadelphia Eagles fan who discovers that Paul the Assailed, and Paul the Giants Fan who calls into the talk shows are one and the same. Paul doesn't take kindly to the man's ridicule, and this serves as the foundation for one of the best confrontations I've seen in a long time.

Patton Oswalt did wonderfully. I knew by the previews alone I would dig his performance and he didn't disappoint. This is a really solid story of being in a rut and getting the briefest of moments to climb out.