Your Biggest Fan

Big Fan @ Real Art Ways, Hartford

Oct. 9-14

Friday, Oct. 9: Q & A with Director Robert Siegel(!!)

Before I realized that Big Fan's director (Robert Siegel) also wrote The Wrestler, I was already drawing mental comparisons between the two. The latter was quite painful to watch though indisputably well acted and provocative. Big Fan promises a similarly gritty portrayal of macho athletes and fan culture, with a plot centering around a schlubby football devotee getting his ass kicked by a favorite player. The film is getting high praise from my favorite people but I'm beginning to question the merit of these arthouse investigations of low culture, and whether we elitist viewers, who would never ourselves attend an indie wrestling event (or a WWE one) or make inarticulate calls to sports talk radio, are just being condescending, watching and appreciating and empathizing with these stories for an hour or two on screen we wouldn't care to dirty our hands with in real life. So, more edgy, emotionally resonant films about attractive, witty bloggers, please, so I can stop struggling with this cognitive dissonance.

Big Fan opens at Real Art Ways this Friday, and may already be playing at an indie theater near you.

Edit: Thanks helpful commenter Abby for the info about Friday night's Q & A with the director!