BEFORE: I watched a bunch of football films last year, so tonight's film is more about the pro football fans, so tangentially related to the game itself.
THE PLOT: A hardcore New York Giants football fan struggles to deal with the consequences when he is beaten up by his favorite player.
AFTER: This film seems to delight in putting its main character into the most difficult situation possible - a man's fandom is put to the test when he sees behind the pigskin curtain and follows his favorite player to a Manhattan strip-club. He tries to express his fandom, but accidentally causes an altercation which ends with him beaten up and lying in a heap on the club floor.
He then faces a terrible choice - give an account of the situation to the police, which would likely result in his favorite player being suspended, or remain silent, and deal with the physical (and emotional) injuries on his own. Filing a personal injury lawsuit and cashing in on the situation would also result in other fans learning his name, which would also put him at risk.
It's a dark character study, which begins and ends with the movie's star, Patton Oswalt (last seen in "Blade: Trinity"). I happen to be a fan of Oswalt's stand-up, which we only see a small hint of here. This character is right in his sweet-spot too, bearing more than a passing resemblance to Spence, the character he played for years on TV's "The King of Queens" - you just need to change Queens to Staten Island, the Mets to the Giants, and his job as a subway token-booth clerk to one as a parking lot cashier.
This works as a look inside the world of fans - remember, the word is short for "Fanatic". This could just as easily be about fans of actors, authors, politicians, etc. - I for one have my own set of rules for encountering famous people at Comic-Con - it just happens to be about a fan of a football player named Quantrell Bishop (though throughout the movie I thought his name was "Cointreaux"). And if you think it's far off the mark, you don't need to look any further than the real-life stories of football players like Michael Vick or Plaxico Burress (and I'm sure there are others...).
The real NFL season is coming to a close (as is Movie Year #2), just two games left on the schedule. This film hits my schedule quite coincidentally two days after a massive Giants tanking, blowing a 21-point lead and losing to the Eagles. I simply could not have planned this schedule any better...
It's funny, through this whole process I've rarely noticed great soundtrack cuts, maybe because so many of them are NOT great, just the same songs used again and again - but tonight I did notice the song playing during the end credits. It sounded like Bob Dylan, very similar to "The Man in Me" (heard in "The Big Lebowski") but it turned out to be "Sweet Revenge" by John Prine. It sounds to me like the best song Dylan never recorded - I'll have to check it out. Thanks, IMDB.
NITPICK POINT: Throughout the film, the main character makes late-night phone calls to a sports talk-radio show - constantly being yelled at by his mother, whom he lives with, to keep his voice down. And the reason he doesn't call from another location via his cell phone is...?
Also starring Kevin Corrigan (last seen in "American Gangster"), Michael Rapaport (last seen in "Lucky Numbers"), Matt Servitto (famous for playing the FBI agent on "The Sopranos")
RATING: 6 out of 10 parking spaces
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