Dir. Dan Eckman USA 2009
These films were both low budget comedies by first time directors, so I thought they'd pair well. As it turned out, they're almost nothing alike, but they're both well worth your time.
Big Fan was written and directed by the former editor of The Onion, although very little of that publications snarky, absurdist humor is present in the film. Patton Oswalt stars as Paul Aufiero, a 36 year old parking garage attendant who lives with his mother in Staten Island. Despite living with a complete lack of accomplishment or aspiration, Paul is nonetheless satisfied by his one and only hobby: being a New York Giants fan. Too broke to afford tickets to the games, Paul and his friend Sal tailgate in the parking lot with a radio during every game, and Paul spends his long, boring days at the parking garage writing out long diatribes that he then reads on a call-in radio show every night. When an encounter with his favorite player (fictional quarterback Quantrell Bishop) goes horribly awry, Paul's already bleak life is plunged into further chaos and despair.
So yeah. If you're a Patton Oswalt fan going into this movie expecting a laugh riot, you're going to be sorely disappointed. Big Fan plays more like a low-key, sports-centric version of Taxi Driver, if Travis Bickle lacked any sense of motivation or self-respect. There are a bunch of genuine laughs during the first act, but as soon as Paul's luck begins to take a turn for the worse, things get really dark, really quickly.
Although the roles asks him to restrain his goofy, hyper-literate onstage persona, Patton Oswalt is a smart casting choice for Paul. His diminutive stature and schlubby ineffectiveness allow him to accurately portray the character without making him completely detestable. And while the audiences feelings of pity and disgust for the character are never alleviated (nor should they be), Oswalt always keeps you rooting for the guy, even when you know it's futile.
The escalation of Paul's anger and despair is perfectly played out in a number of scenes in which he calls in to sports talk show to argue with Philadelphia Phil, a boorish, cruel Eagles fan. Paul's rants are always interrupted by his mother, who pounds on the wall or screams from the other room, telling him to keep it down. This is an easy gag that gets played in a lot of lesser films and sitcoms, but the fact that Paul and his mother feel like real people (Marcia Jean Kurtz is wonderful in the role; her saving entire ziplock bags of duck and soy sauce packets from Chinese takeout because "throwing food out is a sin", rings wonderfully true) and the subtle escalation of these scenes as the film goes on, gives the relationship a real sense of tragedy and pathos.
This sense of escalation is a thread that runs through other aspects of the film as well, eventually culminating in a wonderfully edited, genuinely tense climax that actually left me surprised. Not something I'd expect from a movie about football starring Patton Oswalt.
Although Big Fan is definitely a better made film, Mystery Team is the one I see myself revisiting in the future (hell, I watched it twice in a week already). Conceived by and starring the Derrick Comedy troupe, who's members were a year ahead of me at NYU, Mystery Team works as both a hilarious series of set-pieces and sketches, as well as a fun throwback to some of the entertainment I enjoyed as a kid.
Donald Glover, DC Pierson and Dominic Dierkes star as Jason "The Master of Disguise", Duncan "The Boy Genius" and Charlie "The Strongest Kid in Town". As children, they were beloved by their suburban New England community as lovable kid detectives, policing the schoolyard and solving childish mysteries. Now, they're about to graduate from high school and everyone (including their parents) just finds them weird and sad. When a young girl comes to them and asks that they solve the murder of her parents, the Mystery Team find themselves thrown into an major case that threatens to tear apart the friendship and get them killed.
Mystery Team rides that perfect line between complete absurdity and carefully managed realism (not unlike Community, which Donald Glover landed a role on shortly after completing this film). The film is shot in this nostalgic soft-focus and is scored with uplifting strings and peppy refrains that call to mind the Nickelodeon-style shows of the late 80s and early 90s. The Mystery Team themselves inhabit this bizarre fantasy land that seems part Encyclopedia Brown and part 1950's cop show. The rest of the characters exist in a very real world of vulgar language, sex and responsibility, and the contrast remains hilarious through the entire film. If you're buying what the film is selling, you'll find it hysterical and almost comforting on a number of levels.
Glover, Pierson and Dierkes form the core of the film, and their roots in sketch comedy shine through in their well-oiled banter and effortless interaction. As the protagonist, Glover carries the film, blending the child-like cluelessness of his character on Community with a hyperactive, over-the-top energy that makes me wish he'd blow up in the same way that Seth Rogen and Jason Siegel did a few years earlier. He and Pierson maintain a perfect balance with Pierson acting as the nebbish straight man to Glover's increasing absurdity. Dierkes feels like the odd man out at times and some of his lines fall flat. His best contribution to the dynamic are his awkward mannerisms and facial expressions; his performance alone justifies a second viewing of the film, as he's usually in the background doing something stupid or muttering something under his breath that you'll probably miss the first time around.
The film also features a number of comedic character actors, including Aubrey Plaza as the female lead, playing a more balanced version of the Daria-like persona she's cultivated in her stand-up and on Parks and Recreation. Matt Walsh of UCB fame and John Lutz from 30 Rock pop up in the third act as well. The only person who didn't really work for me was Bobby Moynihan from SNL as a pathetic convenience store clerk who desperately wants in on the action. I'm not sure if it was his performance or the character being too broadly drawn, but I felt like he wasn't worth the time devoted to his subplot.
As I said, this movie is clearly amateurish in a number of ways (the directing is a bit to ambitious for its own good and the film at times feels like set-pieces strung together by a story rather than a narrative with funny moments) but if you're looking for something a bit off-beat and starring a bunch of really funny people, I'd say this one is time well spent.
UP NEXT: Two weeks until Game of Thrones. I'll try to get a few movies in before then.
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