Gigantic
Dir: Matt Aselton
Rating: 3.5
First Independent Features
98 Minutes
What is the state of the indie film today? Logic would define an independent film as a movie that wasn’t made within in the Hollywood system, but it seems to have become a genre with specific expectations that mean something other than “independent.” What does it mean, then? Quirky characters? Screenplays with “clever” or “realistic” dialogue? Strange cinematic sensibilities?
How would you classify Gigantic? It fits the description of an indie film: Paul Dano and Zooey Deschanel star. It features alternative comedy icons (Zach Galifianakis and Ian Roberts) that don’t seem like they’re cashing an easy paycheck playing broad caricatures as they would in a Hollywood comedy. It’s shot in a visually interesting style unlike the newest Adam Sandler flick. It opens with a song by Masta Killa and ends with Animal Collective.
Now try describing the film: Paul Dano plays a young mattress salesman who wants to adopt a baby from China. Zooey Deschanel falls asleep on one of his beds and romance blossoms. Sounds like a “weird” indie movie, doesn’t it? The sort of thing that grates on the patience of viewers since Garden State and Napoleon Dynamite brought indie sensibilities to the mainstream? Gigantic never feels like it’s trying to hard to be quirky or weird in that forced way that seems like an attempt to hide glaring script problems a la Little Miss Sunshine.
Miraculously, Gigantic is not nearly as weird as it sounds… with a notable exception. The film’s biggest misstep occurs when Galifianakis’ mysterious homeless assassin trying to kill Paul Dano for no apparent reason — imagine the money-demanding paperboy from Better Off Dead without the laughs. In a character-driven film like Gigantic, that sort of imposed quirk feels like authorial imposition rather than anything natural.
The strangeness in Gigantic works best is when it comes from the characters. Deschanel’s father is played by John Goodman, a wealthy, talkative art collector who managed to expel a brain tumor by sheer force of will. Ed Asner plays Dano’s father, who celebrates each new family birth by whacking a piñata replica of a recent dictator. Perhaps the balance between family and romantic leads helps matters.
Surrealism aside, Gigantic proves a solid indie serio-comedy about a relatively normal romance with some strange circumstances without trying too hard to have personality. Perhaps there’s a reason that indie comedy is frequently strange compared to its mainstream brethren — the mainstream doesn’t allow for that sort of thing.
by Danny Djeljosevic
