Big Fan – Review

There are multiple types of sports fans, however “fanatics” likely describes the group of fans that Big Fan main character Paul Aufiero (Oswalt) falls into. Paul fucking LOVES the New York Giants pro football team, especially star defensive lineman Quantrell Bishop (Hamm). While he works a as a late-night parking lot attendant, mostly he just focuses on his next big speech when he calls into the “Sports Dogg” radio talk show. Sports Dogg knows his man Paul always has the blazing hot disses towards divisional rivals such as the loser ass Philadelphia Eagles.

Paul lives for these moments when he can call in as “Paul from Staten Island” and make a name for himself, showing off to his friend Sal (Corrigan) who is enamored by his off-the-cuff tirades. These small moments take Paul away from his lowly life, living with his mother (Kurtz), who always shushes him through the wall trying to sleep during his radio call-ins.

Paul can’t help but obsess over the Giants, as he has little else in his life, and it’s about the only chance at a pick-me-up during his weeks. His friend’s admiration keeps him working hard on his call in speeches, despite always telling Sal he will “wing it like usual.” The two always hit the parking lot tailgate parties, and listen to the game from outside for good luck. After a big win, Paul calls into his sports show to diss the rival Philadelphia Phil (Rapaport) and his worthless Eagles who are slipping behind the Giants in the win column.

One night while cruising, Paul and Sal stumble upon Quantrell Bishop and his entourage at a gas station. They get creepy and follow Quantrell, eventually hitting up the same strip club that the crew ends up at. Things get weird that evening, as Paul and Quantrell collide, leaving Paul literally scarred, and reconciling with the reality of sports, his obsessive fandom and his love of the Giants. Will Paul find any lesson to be learned here, or is his brain too far lost in the fanatic zone?

Big Fan is mostly comedic, but it tackles real obsession, and real behaviors through its short runtime. While it appears exaggerated for comedic effect at times, it’s fairly realistic in many ways despite that. It is funny, and sad, but overall, it is well done for what it is. We all know people that go too far into stuff that they like, but it’s hard not to see a bit ourselves in this sad Paul, even though he goes way too far down the rabbit hole. The story only has so much steam, but it is pretty well done from all involved and unfortunately way too real when it comes to sports fans.

My only mild complaint is that this movie is fast to force Quantrell Bishop’s character into a violence-first type. I get that the script needs to do what it needs to do, but his response was about the only part that seemed slightly forced for me.