Here's a pair of films featuring a couple of funny guys trying to do some serious business.
Big Fan: This film stars Patton Oswalt (The King of Queens) as a huge New York Giants fan, who has a chance encounter with his favorite player and ends up getting assaulted by him. Being the huge Giants fan that he is, he refuses to press charges in fear of hurting the team. This is billed as a dark comedy, but I failed to really see the humor in any of it. This is a bleak, albeit fairly realistic examination into the level of fanaticism displayed by certain people. I thought the acting was solid here, but the story was fairly empty. I would have preferred an exploration of this issue beyond the protagonists' perspective, but we never get it. It tries so hard to give a tragically ironic finish, yet it lands more with a dull thud than with any reverberance. Grade: C
Taking Woodstock: Here we have Demitri Martin (who you should definitely see in his weekly show on Comedy Central) playing a dramatic role in Ang Lee's drama about the organization of Woodstock. I didn't think it was possible, but somehow a film about Woodstock was made without featuring one performance. Instead, we get a lot of broad, unfunny characters running in and out of the film without any true insight as to why they're being included here. The only one that receives any depth is Martin's character, but I found him to be completely unengaging. Eugene Levy brightens things up but he disappears far too quickly from the film. This felt like I was on one bad trip and I was just waiting for the buzz to wear off. Definite recommendation to avoid. Grade: D+
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