Under the Spotlight: Patton Oswalt’s unsettling obsession in ‘Big Fan’
Among the most recognisable names in American comedy, Patton Oswalt has created a body of work that is too extensive to be categorised. Ranging from his acclaimed voice acting in the beloved animated film Ratatouille to appearances in popular shows such as Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Oswalt has done it all. However, there’s nothing in his filmography that’s quite like Big Fan.
Just the mere presence of Oswalt in a cast invites comedic expectations from audiences who have become used to his brand of humour over the years, but it’s those very expectations that Robert D. Siegel’s 2009 debut feature so masterfully thwarts. Investigating the wild, bizarre world of extreme sports fandom, it’s a movie that many might go into expecting yet another comedy routine, but they will soon come out on the other end irreversibly disturbed.
Starring Oswalt as Paul Aufiero, a garage attendant who claims to be the biggest New York Giants fan in the world, Big Fan taps into a subgenre that can only be described as “losercore”. Paul, who still lives with his mother in a tiny apartment, spends his work hours listening to his favourite sports talk show on the radio and making copious notes, only to go home at night and call into the same show just to regurgitate his ordered thoughts while passing them off as spontaneous wit.
Dodging irritated shouts from his mother and answering follow-up calls from his only friend in the world, this talk show and his rivalry with another caller named “Philadelphia Phil” are all he has going on in his life. It’s the kind of character that nobody would associate with Oswalt at first glance, but when they see Big Fan, it’s almost like it was written with him in mind.
During an interview, Oswalt explained why he chose the project: “This is going to sound kind of contradictory, but what leapt out about this character is how, even on the page, you can sense him trying to scurry away from the sunlight. It was like – this is a guy who is on a very active quest to stay disengaged from life. And the fact that Robert kind of made that active, just on the page itself, made me go, ‘Oh, this might be really cool to do.'”
When Todd Phillips’ Joker came out in 2019, fans immediately compared it to Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, but those who had already watched Big Fan knew that this was Patton Oswalt’s Joker from the beginning. Siegel, who previously collaborated with Darren Aronofsky on The Wrestler, constructs a remarkable exploration of the obsession that drives most fandoms, especially professional sports.
Paul masks his lack of personal achievements and life experiences with a quasi-religious dedication to the Giants, memorising statistics and schedules just to defend his team on a random local radio program. While Oswalt’s approach to these mundane moments is brilliant, the film keeps ramping up the absurdity as Paul finds himself in an unprecedented situation.
Along with his best friend, he decides to tail his favourite Giants player to a nightclub where he tries to introduce himself, only to end up getting brutally assaulted by the star athlete. After regaining consciousness, instead of helping the authorities file a case against the footballer or his lawyer brother launch a lawsuit, he feels guilty for damaging the Giants’ chances by getting their best player suspended. On paper, this is a hilarious premise, but it’s Oswalt’s genius that transforms the tone into a kind of repulsive tragedy.
“Here’s a guy who has no effect on life and on the world, but his team does,” the actor explained. “This epic battle every year of his team for the championship. Their epic failures and epic victories. This guy has epic nothing. He’s got the same thing every single day.”
Big Fan might just be one of the greatest cinematic representations of ‘Basking in reflected glory’, a term coined by psychologists to refer to the phenomenon where individuals attach their self-esteem to external entities such as a sports team in order to feel good about themselves. Paul takes this to its logical conclusion, having completely organised all his social functions around his team and its millionaire players.
Sports fandoms are generally more normalised when compared to others, but Oswalt’s stunning performance exposes the dark side of extreme obsession, resulting in a hauntingly total erasure of the self.