Big Fan

A sort of Bartleby, the Scrivener for the modern age, Big Fan tells the story of Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswalt), a middle-age loser who lives with his mother. Paul works in a dirty booth in a dingy parking garage, collecting money from motorists and listening to his beat-up radio. At night, he phones sports call-in shows and becomes Paul from Staten Island, no. 1 fan of the New York Giants and, in his own incredibly tiny way, a sort of celebrity. What sets Big Fan apart is that Paul isn’t interested in improving his life; there isn’t a magic girlfriend waiting to carry him to adulthood; and he doesn’t have some great, hidden talent that will cause him to find success. Instead, he simply prefers not to do anything more than live in his childhood bedroom and adore the Giants. Conflict ensues when he has a run-in with his favorite player, Quantrell Bishop (Jonathan Hamm), and it seems like he might be forced to accept wealth and fame. Paul’s life becomes a testament to the will to refuse the values of normalcy, health and family. Perfectly executed, deeply original and sympathetic, Robert D. Siegel’s directing debut is one of the best films of the year.