The Wrestler scribe Robert D. Siegel (read our interview with him) moves outside the gladiator ring, but not out of the coliseum, for his well-crafted feature directorial debut. Big Fan concerns Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswalt), a 36-year-old New York Giants obsessive quite happy with his existence putting in time as a parking lot attendant and living vicariously through the triumphs of his favourite football team. He rejects and resents urging from his mom, with whom he still lives, and siblings that he get a life. What pride Paul has he gains through calls to a local sports-radio show and attendance at tailgate parties in the Giants Stadium parking lot with his sidekick Sal (Kevin Corrigan). That goes pretty much unchanged after a misunderstanding leads to Paul getting beaten within an inch of his life by his favourite Giants player, Quantrell “QB” Bishop (Jonathan Hamm).
Just like his vision of pro-sports fallout in The Wrestler, the world Siegel paints with Big Fan is grim, hopeless and unfailingly plausible. Only in a fourth-quarter shift toward (again, vicarious) revenge fantasy does he relent to pressure to tie things up with a cute kicker — and even that is carefully considered and consistent. Protagonist-loser Paul is his own worst enemy and/or a determined nonconformist and, even in the sickly and dull afterglow of lowered expectations, Siegel doesn’t judge him — nor does he judge us for judging. Big Fan is also notable for moving Oswalt, a gifted comic and character actor best known for his voice role in Ratatouille, into a (live-action) lead performance best described as stingingly, and stinkingly, real.