Big Fan (2009)

I watched Big Fan again after my recent post about The Fanatic.

Paul (Patton Oswalt) works as a night attendant in a parking garage. Which doesn't seem that bad as terrible jobs go. He has a cramped bedroom in his mother's house. He has one close friend, which is actually pretty good for an adult. His car seems okay. He has no qualms taking a long drive through a terrible neighborhood in the middle of the night. He sits in his booth writing out what he's going to say when he phones a sports call-in show at one or two in the morning. He's a major figure among regular callers. This, perhaps, helps him to maintain a feeling of superiority over his infinitely more successful lawyer brother.

He and his only friend dress up as sports fans and go to football games. They hang around in the parking lot where all the other sports fans gather. He tries to catch a football someone has thrown, not to him. He and his friend can't afford tickets, so they sit in the parking lot and watch the game on TV they've somehow plugged into the car battery.

The life this poor devil has made for himself comes crashing down around him when he wakes up in the hospital after being brutally beaten by his favorite football player. His family thinks he's an idiot for not suing and his brother finds a way to file a lawsuit for an absurd amount without his knowledge or consent.

Being brutally assaulted by a millionaire in high-priced strip club should have been Paul's salvation. If nothing else, it should have been an escape from the living death of sports fandom. Was his three-day coma a reference to Christ's resurrection? The movie has a certain amount of religious imagery. He drives around with a rosary hanging from his rearview mirror.

I could see why it would be embarrassing to sue, to go into court and explain on the stand that they were stalking a guy, then stupidly TOLD him they'd been following him even though they witnessed him buying drugs. Paul thought he was the guy's "#1 fan", and he probably saw himself as a minor celebrity always calling the radio show. Would he give all that up for a few million dollars?