patton oswalt Tagged Articles at Cinematical

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Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Big Fan, one of my favorite films from this past Sundance Film Festival and a must-see for anyone who's ever taken their fandom a bit too far. Written and directed by The Wrestler screenwriter Robert Siegel, Big Fan stars Patton Oswalt as a lonely New York Giants fan living out his days as an overnight parking lot attendant on Staten Island whose obsession with his favorite football team leads to an unfortunate (and embarrassing) incident involving his favorite player -- forcing our big fan to choose between his team and the rest of his life.

From my Sundance review: "... this isn't a film about sports, it's a film about fandom -- about being so in love with something you go overboard and neglect your friends, your family and your life in order to feed your addiction. This isn't a comedy about the goofy football fan who gets off on chanting and screaming his team's name; it's instead a cold, lonely drama (with brief moments of awkward humor) about the neurotic football fan who'd give up everything (and I mean everything) to see his team make the playoffs."

For more on Big Fan, check out our Sundance interviews with Patton Oswalt and Robert Siegel, and check out the full poster by clicking the image below. Big Fan will hit theaters later this year.

Making a film about an entirely unlikable character is nothing new, but somehow The Snake sticks the premise into an indie film wrapper that manages to be hilarious from the outset. I imagine the film is going to piss a lot of people off -- and if anyone in a bulimia support group gets wind of it, we'll hear about protests and hunger strikes (sorry, I couldn't resist). But that's not meant as a statement to defend Adam Goldstein's title character from the flick: the word douche was invented to describe him.

The film follows the exploits of said douche, Ken ("The Snake"), who will basically do anything to try and sleep with a woman, yet he's vain enough to be swayed by the slightest outside influences that hint at his object of affection being less than stellar. Case in point: while cruising the local bars he actually picks up a fairly attractive woman, despite his idiotic come-on techniques and cheesy lines. However, when one of his friends suggests (as a joke) that she might be slightly overweight, he turns her down when she invites him back to her place. That's just the tip of the iceberg, and it's hilarious to watch.

Cold winds and torrential rainfall did not dampen the spirits of attendees on the first day of SXSW in Austin, Texas. Cinematical writers traveled from near and far to cover the annual celebration and eat some barbecue. It's only my second SXSW experience, but seeing so many writers, film critics, and bloggers whose work I read and respect has inspired me to quit the business. No, no, I meant to say: it's cool seeing so many Twitterers in person.

Good Buzz: The film festival proper got underway with some serious man love, as the opening night presentation of John Hamburg's bro-mantic comedy I Love You, Man was unveiled at the historic Paramount Theater, with stars Paul Rudd and Jason Segel among hundreds in attendance. Simultaneously, a slew of films began screening at other venues; William Goss said Nash Edgerton's Australian thriller The Square was unexpectedly good, I heard very good things about Eric Kutner and Adam Goldstein's snarling comedy The Snake -- presented by Patton Oswalt, who was in the house -- and I enjoyed a wild and wacky program of music videos.

Midnight Gets Crazy: To cap the evening, most of the Cinematical crew gathered for the first evening of SXSW Presents Fantastic Fest at Midnight, the international festival premiere of Ong Bak 2. The directorial debut of martial artist supreme Tony Jaa features numerous insanely awesome fight scenes and, er, elephants. Before the film rolled, new SXSW Producer Janet Pierson introduced Alamo Drafthouse impressario Tim League, dressed for some reason in a Roman toga, who kicked things off with a contest that I'm not sure I should describe in detail. (Hint: it involved beer. And men. And drinking.) A good time was had by all.

Robert Siegel made his directorial debut with Big Fan (reviewed by Erik Davis) at this year's Sundance Film Festival; comedian Patton Oswalt (interviewed here) stars as a lonely sports talk radio caller and New York Giants fanatic whose only love goes horribly wrong. Siegel spoke with Cinematical in Park City about his acclaimed script for The Wrestler, directing a comedian, why he's not worried about the wrath of the NFL, why Big Fan wouldn't have worked with George Clooney in the lead, and what he was hoping to explore with the film: "Sports radio can be very wonderful and joyous and spirited, but other times it can just be this forum for bitter ... it's a lot like the internet, you know? There are good blogs and bad blogs ... so in that way, (the world of sports radio) is kind of like the proto-blog, where you can just vent and take out all your frustrations ... but there's definitely this kind of angry White male hostile undercurrent to a lot of sports radio; it wouldn't be interesting to me if that was the only thing it had going for it, but that thing definitely gives it an extra layer. ... "

You can listen to the interview here at Cinematical by clicking below:



You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.

As Paul Auferio, the title character in Robert Siegel's Big Fan (which Erik Davis reviews here), Patton Oswalt didn't have a chance to fall back on the skill set he's honed through the years as one of the best stand-up comics working today: "As a comedian, your instinct is you tag everything with a joke or a look or a take; this guy, this character ... this is not one of those movies where the writer and director is looking at the characters ironically or in a post-modern sense where it's implied You all know that we're better than that, we're way smarter than this, that we're all looking down on this character, aren't we? This is a character that has no irony about himself ... and just unabashedly loves what he loves, to the detriment of having a real life. ..."

Oswalt spoke with Cinematical about the challenges facing a movie and comics obsessive in the part of playing a sports obsessive, how he sees Paul as an 'imploding" character, some of his favorite independent films and how he sees Big Fan as a tribute to some of the classic 'lonely man' dramas of the 1970's, plus much more.

You can listen to the interview here at Cinematical by clicking below:



You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.

Perhaps I'm predisposed to liking Big Fan since a) I'm a die hard Giants fan, b) I grew up in the neighborhood where it was shot, and c) it's a film about sports fanaticism, which is a topic I know quite a bit about. But that doesn't mean you'll hate Big Fan if you aren't familiar with sports or the New York football Giants because this isn't a film about sports, it's a film about fandom -- about being so in love with something you go overboard and neglect your friends, your family and your life in order to feed your addiction. This isn't a comedy about the goofy football fan who gets off on chanting and screaming his team's name; it's instead a cold, lonely drama (with brief moments of awkward humor) about the neurotic football fan who'd give up everything (and I mean everything) to see his team make the playoffs.

Set in the borough of Staten Island, home to the blue collar heroes of New York City, Big Fan follows just one of several guys who live and die by their favorite sports team. Football is in no way just a simple form of weekend entertainment in New York; it's almost a religion for some people -- including Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswalt), a 35-year-old Giants fanatic who still lives at home with his nagging mother while working the late shift inside one of those parking garage toll booths at a hospital. While at work, Paul spends his time carefully penning Giants-themed trash talk speeches so that he can call in to the overnight talk radio show and give those Philadelphia Eagles fans (especially one loudmouth nicknamed Philadelphia Phil) some of the business. This is Paul's entire life -- and when he's not at work writing his speeches, or outside Giants Stadium watching the games on a makeshift television with his one friend, he's dealing with a family who want Paul to finally do something with his life.

Hey folks, just a quick heads-up regarding our Sundance coverage. The Cinematical crew (Erik Davis, Scott Weinberg, James Rocchi and Eric D. Snider) are on the ground now in Park City, picking up badges, planning our schedules, searching for parties housing free food, etc ... Over the next 10 days, here's a little taste of what you should expect from our team:

• Reviews -- As always, our expert team of film nuts will bring you a whole bunch of reviews (most of which will be full-length) of films screening here at Sundance. We'll also throw in a few themed dispatches with shorter reviews for multiple flicks.
• Interview Series -- Once again, we'll be bringing you a series of interviews in a variety of formats. We've lined up a series of fantastic audio interviews (with folks like John Krasinski, Paul Giamatti, Patton Oswalt and Antoine Fuqua, among others), and I'll also be running around with a little Flip camera; crashing parties, piecing together on-the-spot interviews with whatever celeb/filmmaker crosses my path.
• Sundance in 60 Seconds -- Every night of the festival, Cinematical's Peter Martin will provide a round-up of not only highlights from our coverage, but also tap into what other people are saying about the fest.
• Sundance Movie Posters, Trailers, Images and Clips -- Look for a whole bunch of Sundance movie posters, images, trailers and clips (some of which are exclusives) to sporadically pop up on the site each day.
• Twitter -- Myself (http://twitter.com/erikdavis), James Rocchi (http://twitter.com/jamesrocchi) and Eric D. Snider (http://twitter.com/ericdsnider) are all on Twitter and will be throwing up short bursts of brilliance throughout the fest. So feel free to follow our daily adventures over there as well.
• Moviefone -- Our main Sundance hub has gone live over at Moviefone, where you'll not only be able to check out all our shenanigans, but also coverage from our cool cousins over at indieWIRE, as well as tons of Sundance photos and more. So bookmark this page for constant Sundance updates.

Other than that, the rest of our crew will remain at home, pumping out non Sundance-related posts keeping you up to date on all the goings-on in the movie world. So dive in, have fun and let us know if you have any questions!

Operating out of a small space on Fairfax, the nightclub Largo quickly became more a legend than a venue. Intimate and loose, part of the appeal of Largo is that you literally never knew (I only use the past tense as the club has moved from its Fairfax location to a larger venue on La Cienega in the past month) what, or who might turn up. Largo's where Jack Black and Kyle Gass did some of their earliest work as Tenacious D; Jackson Browne's dropped in to sing a few songs. John C. Reilly has hosted casual, extemporaneous chat shows there; composer Jon Brion (best known for his work on Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love) has held shows where he alternates constructing songs out of intricately arranged loops of instrumental figures he records live and composes and conducts on-stage with spirited cover versions of requests shouted out from the audience.

Co-directed by Largo manager and co-owner Mark Flanagan and Andrew van Baal, Largo recreates the Largo experience; loose, smart, random and unique. Mixing concert musical performances with snippets of comedy, the final film makes you feel like you've been to Largo, even as the more elegant notes in the black-and-white composition and the vignettes of the club's rhythm and tempo between the acts make it abundantly clear you're watching a film that was constructed and not just a tape that was turned on.

In what seems like a repeat of last year, the 2008 Annie Award nominations include a Pixar movie and a movie about penguins. The top contenders for the 2007 Annies, which recognize the best in animation, were Cars and Happy Feet. The former ended up winning the big award, Best Animated Feature. However, a couple weeks later it was Happy Feet that won the corresponding Oscar, so the Annies can not be looked at to predict the Academy's decision. In 2008, though, the two awards should actually match. The only real contender for both the Annie and the Oscar is Pixar's Ratatouille. There isn't much chance of this year's penguin movie, Surf's Up, winning either award. If there's any minor competition for Pixar, it's from Persepolis. The other two nominees for the Best Animated Feature Annie are Bee Movie and The Simpsons Movie.

Ratatouille was the leader in nominations at 13, while Surf's Up received the second highest amount with 10. In addition to the top award, the two films are competing in the categories for writing (also competing: Simpsons and Persepolis), storyboarding (also competing: TMNT; Meet the Robinsons; Bee Movie), production design (also competing: Beowulf), directing (also competing: Shrek the Third; Simpsons; Persepolis), character design (no other competitors), character animation (no other competitors, but Surf's Up received two mentions here) and animated effects (also competing: Spider-Man 3; Disney short How to Hook Up Your Home Theater; Ratatouille received two mentions here). One category that Bee Movie seriously missed is voice acting, which features three nominations for Ratatouille -- for Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm and Patton Oswalt.

One thing that is interesting about the Annies is how the awards can be distributed to many different movies. Last year, Over the Hedge won the directing, storyboarding and character design categories, Flushed Away won in writing, voice acting, animated effects, character animation and production design categories and Happy Feet took away no awards. Then again, the year before, Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit picked up ten trophies and then went on to pick up the Academy Award. So, the 2008 Annies could go any number of ways.

At the end of October, Cinematical was part of a group of journalists invited to Pixar's Emeryville, CA studios to get a look inside the making of the Ratatouille DVD. Walking in to the studio's bright, beautiful complex, it felt almost like visiting any other Bay Area high-tech company; that familiarity's erased as soon as you spot the life-sized Mike and Sully from Monsters, Inc. by the reception desk -- or the larger-than-life-size replicas of The Incredibles standing guard over an upstairs common area. The walls were lined with framed concept art and storyboards; someone whizzed by on a Segway; it was just another day at the Pixar office. Check out our gallery below.



First, supervising animator Mark A. Walsh talked about his work as one of the prime architect of the animated rat characters in the films, as well as the challenges Pixar's animators faced in turning real rats into furry friends, and the kind of research involved in animating animals: "We'll kind of get to know rats as animals, and we'll tend to usually go overboard -- we did this with Nemo -- where we go to an extreme as far as animating rats. So we'll take clips of real rats eating and crawling and climbing and we'll animate exactly that and try to get a feel for how they locomote and the mechanics ... Then, when we get into blending the acting and the more human experience into the animation, we kind of have an idea of where that kind of line falls; we can do completely human characters, or we can do completely rat (characters) and then we look at all those tests we've done that are very realistic and we'll kind of pick and pull little ideas out of them and sprinkle that into our acting. On Ratatouille, we went through a learning curve during production, where we would do kind of sniffing and nose-twitching that are very common when you watch rats and put them into our acting here and there and we found that Brad (Bird, Ratatouille's director) found that as he was editing the movie together, these things were popping up a little more often than he would like, so he asked us to pull back from the 'rat-isms,' as we wound up calling them. ..."

Of course, you can pull back on the 'rat-isms,' but you're still making a movie about rats. Walsh spoke about the challenge presented by Ratatouille that reviewers and commentators noted -- that we see rats as disgusting, and in the real world try to keep them as far away from food as possible. "Some of the things that we were conscious of was making sure you saw Remy wash his hands before he was going to touch food, and if we were entering a scene where he was going to be cooking, to try to keep him from walking on all fours, to keep the hands clean ...we would subtly pull back on some of the rat stuff there, so we could subconsciously not creep the audience out too much when he was handling food. And then we would get more humanistic in our acting there ..."