With major league baseball kicking off its 2010 season tonight, and CFL teams gearing up for the opening of training camp in two months time, I decided to make Big Fan my pick-of-the-day. It’s written by Robert Siegel, who scripted The Wrestler, and stars Patton Oswalt as a New Yorker who crosses over the line from fan to fanatic in his obsessive love for the local NFL team the Giants.
Later this fall, as part of celebrations surrounding the Saskatchewan Roughriders 100th anniversary the Dunlop Art Gallery is planning an exhibition on the nature of fandom in this age of celebrity and spectacle. Should be a provocative show. For a taste of what’s to come, check out Big Fan. It screens at the RPL Theatre tonight at 7 p.m. Here’s the trailer. (YouTube)
And if you’re up for a double-bill, Veit Helmer’s Absurdistan screens at 9 p.m. The film, which is in Russian with English subtitles, qualifies as a romantic comedy, although it’s setting (an Afghanistan-style town where the women go on a sex strike to motivate the men to work harder to improve their community) is not exactly typical of the genre. Neither does it star Jennifer Aniston and/or Vince Vaughn. Here’s the trailer. (YouTube)
