Big Fan

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The movie is an unblinking look at the hidden (or perhaps not so hidden) pathology of American sports mania.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Starring an ideally cast Patton Oswalt in the title role, Big Fan is a poignant, dead-on character study, an examination of a crisis in the life of the most die-hard of die-hard New York Giants football fans.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

A bleakly funny character study of a very particular species of urban fauna - the sports radio call-in fanatic - Big Fan’ is compulsively watchable.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

Near the two-minute warning, Big Fan becomes chillingly unpredictable.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

One of the more thought-provoking sports movies I've seen.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Oswalt sells Auferio's pasty indecision and makes him a more sympathetic figure than he has any right to be.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Because the audience isn’t privy to the hero’s thoughts, the final 15 minutes or so of Big Fan are white-knuckle.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

A spasmodically funny and bleak film about the love that speaks its name.

Time Out New York David Fear

Unlike "The Wrestler," which Siegel scripted, Big Fan has a way of making a socially marginal figure seem oddly charismatic without stacking the sympathy deck.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Comedian Patton Oswalt triumphantly nails every comic and dramatic nuance as Paul Aufiero, a New York Giants obsessive who has long ago moved from fan to fanatic.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Structured as a comedy, albeit a dark one.

Premiere Staff (Not credited)

There are some very funny parts but this isn’t a typical sports comedy.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Siegel, in his debut as director, shot the low-budget Big Fan on a digital camera and achieves an appropriately grimy, gritty look. He has an eye for the telling detail and for the comedy in tragedy.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Superb Noo Yawk attitude, dialogue and performances (including one from the essential Kevin Corrigan, now well into his second decade of being indie movies' dirtbag on demand) keep the movie lively and tart.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Siegel takes us to the brink of operatic melodrama, then lands us in a tragicomic spot: a psychological landscape of alternate life and make-believe death.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Sad, funny and painfully honest.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Though the movie isn’t much to look at, he (Siegel) gets a credibly dark and pathetic performance from the typically comic Oswalt.

Slate Dana Stevens

With its unremittingly bleak humor and eagerness to plumb the depths of fanboy abjection, Big Fan seems destined for a future in the cult canon.

The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge

It's an unsettling, "Taxi Driver"-like character study that shows the underside to hero worship and the primal world of professional football.

Variety Todd McCarthy

It's a small, peculiar film, one unlikely to appeal much to women, non-sports fans and mainstreamers, but its uncomfortable comic insights should win it a loyal following.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Oswalt captures the rabidness of the die-hard fan, the kind you can hear at any moment on the sports talk shows.

Film Threat Whitney Borup

Comes across as a little uneven, but far from unsatisfactory. Patton Oswalt is sympathetic (at times heart breaking) and makes the film completely worth watching.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

One thing Siegel got absolutely right in this film is the casting.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Siegel's depiction of the film's supporting characters too often borders on caricature. By the movie's strained, overheated climax, it's clear that Siegel, in his directing debut, is less interested in his protagonist as a character capable of transformation than as a human petri dish of futility and pathology.

Village Voice Vadim Rizov

It takes considerable effort to make Darren Aronofsky seem like a model of restraint, but Robert Siegel pulls it off in Big Fan.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

This is a flick whose failures are at least as interesting as the successes.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

The movie gets repetitive, and when it calls an audible and goes somewhere unexpected, it pulls back quickly. Too bad.