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Movie Review: Gigantic 124

Posted by krow from the no-not-a-groupie,-not-me dept.
"Its like being the world's tallest midget" is how Flansburgh describes They Might Be Giants fame at one point during the bands documentary, Gigantic. I was lucky enough to score tickets to the opening screening here in Seattle of the movie and was delighted with what I received for the price of admission. Of course having one of the John's, Flansburgh that is, plus the director AJ Schnack show up to the screening only added to the value.
I am a fan of They Might Be Giants. The fact that I will have seen 26 films by the time that the Seattle Internal Film Festival is over also means that I am a fan of film too. Despite being a fan of film, this documentary could have been two hours worth of the TMBG's videos, or even two hours worth of staring at a black screen, and as long as they played some music I would have loved it.

The documentary is a solid mix of band history and irrelevant pieces (would you expect anything different?). While I can not say that I got a good history on how the two Jon's actually started playing together from the documentary, I did learn a lot about their early successes and the director did a wonderful job of putting together scenes from different periods to give the audience an idea about how the band's early years were. The documentary does reveal how "Dial A Song" got started after a biking messenger accident left Linnell unable to play. We even get to see some photos, complete with price tag, of the actual machine. Flansburgh talks for a bit about how personal "Dial A Song" is and the entire experience of getting to be one with the machine.

The documentary was shot in video and in places comes out a little grainy. Some of the concert scenes definitely show off some of the short comings of the medium (this is not Lucus style digital filming). Despite this the film had a fully packed house during its opening in Seattle and the theater had to turn away 150 people at the door.

The director mentioned that their last showing of the film at SXSW had similar sized crowds. Hopefully this will mean that some distributor will pick up the film so the more people will get a chance to see it. If you are lucky enough to live in one of the cities that it will be playing in, and you love the band's music I can easily recommend going to see it.
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Movie Review: Gigantic More

Movie Review: Gigantic

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  • Bias (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "...even two hours worth of staring at a black screen, and as long as they played some music I would have loved it."

    Doesn't this make your review pretty worthless?
    • nope it would make it biased. for people with a similar bias, this review would be fairly useful.
    • This was NO TROLL, it was the most insightfull post I've seen on /. in YEARS.

      What ever happened to meta-moderation?

  • Damn, I want that movie more than a rock to tie a piece of string around.

    • Bah. (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      *Everybody* wants a rock to tie a piece of string around.
  • Of course having one of the John's, Flansburgh that is, plus the director AJ Schnack show up to the screening only added to the value.Why?
  • We can't watch this movie? It's only played twice? Then why the heck is it being reviewed??? So some elitist Ebert wannabe can brag about how cool he is, that he got in when others were turned away? What's the point of this review? Might as well review a 9.5mm silent movie from the 20s.
    • ..

      People complain when they review mainstream movies that everybody has heard of. Now they're trying to share something almost nobody has heard of, and you're still complaining?

      Personally I'd rather have reviews of these movies that I've never heard of and maybe don't have a chance to see right away because it won't be playing in every theater in the world. What's the point of reviewing a movie that's already been reviewed a thousand times?
      • I don't know quite how to state this to you, but:

        I didn't complain about mainstream movies. You must have mistaken me for the ENTIRE SLASHDOT POPULATION.

        You won't have a chance to see it right away...you won't have a chance to see it AT ALL. It's a supercool little indie film, and it only plays at supercool little film festival theaters, the likes of which you and I will not be invited to.

        • You don't have to be "invited" to go to an independent film, an independent theater, or even a film festival. Invitation is also not required to rent independent films from your local video rental store, or even the franchised video rental outlets. You also don't need an invitation to watch independent films on a variety of cable television stations including IFC [ifctv.com] and Bravo

          • You do, however, need an invitation to get into the best flicks at the indie festivals, such as the one being reviewed here.
            • Thats a whole lotta crap bro. I am at SIFF right now, and you know, I could sell you a ticket if one was available. In fact, we sold tickets to the public for every single one of the films shown at the festival save for the press screenings, which are of course, for the press.

              I suggest you stop feeling sorry for yourself and quell your paranoid delusions that the world is out to get you and go see some films instead of complaining about how you are not invited. You are invited.
              • Yeah, I suppose they just do a first-come first-serve at the best movies? I've been to the SXSW festival and you clear the way when the elites come through.

                • Re:I don't get it (Score:3, Interesting)

                  by ainsoph ( 2216 )

                  Actually, there is an allotment of tickets for passholders and the rest are up for grabs. As long as you have your shit together and buy your tickets around the time when they go on sale, and not try to get them an hour before the show, you can get in.

                  The most popular shows at the SIFF festival, the tickets have overwhelmingly gone to the general public. This may be unique, but so is the Seattle festival.

                  I really suggest dropping the 'elitist' fear you seem to have and get out and see some movies, if that is what you are interested in. Its really not too hard to be invloved in independent film, and aside from a few martini slinging weirdos (who you get to laugh at at the parties) most people are very cool, and probably not too different from yourself.

                  Although, there is a certain breed [thestranger.com] spotted at the fesitval, that is not this elite type you are talking about, but a weirdo obsessed fat crowd, not unlike those you see at star trek and comic book conventions.
    • I don't get it

      Yeah, that's obvious. You haven't actually read the (very short) review, hunh? BTW, I have the sig for some time now, it's not there because of you in particular.

  • TMBG used to have an inovative service called "dial-a-song" [theymightbegiants.com]. You call a phone number which is answered by a restored vintage answering machine and listen to an unreleased song. A computer hooked up to the answering machine changes the song to another unreleased song once an hour.

    The album liner notes always said something like "Remember, the call is free if you call from work".

    I just noticed that they now have a dial-a-song webpage [dialasong.com], which is also free when you connect from work!
  • It does'nt say where the movie will play or when.

    It does'nt provide a link or instructions on how to write to encourage my local theatre to play it.

    As a fan, if they showed it anywhere near here, I'd go see it.

    Unless I missed something (which I'll admit is possible.. the site is slow due to /.), why would somebody make a website for a movie that I have no chance of seeing?
  • Forget about the movie...This reviewer's AMAZING!! I mean, he's 100000000^23 times better than Katz!! I hope we have a replacement on our hands.
  • I used to really like TMBG, and I still do but just not as much in a daily-quoting, obsessive kind of way.

    John F. had a really great idea back in the 90's to send out ten CD EP's a year (by new artists and old) for $42, and he even threw in a cool extra now and then. BUT: like all mail-order, problems happen, only some of which I can blame on him and the lady who ran the operation with him. One year I didn't get the extra goodie, which was a CD by TMBG, and I let her know that it hadn't arrived. I don't know if she thought I was trying to scam an extra copy out of them or something but they wouldn't send a replacement. I signed up for the next year anyway, but at the end of that year when I tried to re-up no luck even though I left them messages several times. Hello CD-of-the-Month still existed for another few years but I guess they didn't want to sell any more to me -- and by association, I became somewhat disillusioned with TMBG's output.
    Still wish I had the rest of the Hello CDs, though.
    • Hello Music Club was really a Flans project, not a TMBG project. I don't see any reason to become disillusioned with TMBG because of a side project of one if its members then I would of any band if one of its members did some side project. Both Flans and Linnell have done numerous side project (Flans also did Monopuff, Linnell has done his State Songs album), which probably keeps them sane and makes it so they aren't constantly doing TMBG stuff 24/7/365, which is probably why the band is still around and as creatively fresh as ever. So for that, I will allow for any weird problems with projects like Hello just because it helps keep them around.
      • I can't really disagree with anything you've said, but still:

        The word I used was disillusioned. I sent them money, I didn't get all the product contracted for, and whoever answered the phone (Margaret?) didn't care too much about it. I was under the illusion that they cared about their fans; I no longer have that illusion, hence dis-illusioned.

        I don't dislike them. I'll still be sad when they're gone and I'm glad when they release a new album. I just don't rush out to buy it on the day of release anymore; I wait for a used copy to show up at the the local reseller.

  • mirror (Score:3, Informative)

    by gimpboy ( 34912 ) <john.m.harrold@ g m a i l . c om> on Saturday June 08, 2002 @02:54PM (#3665746) Homepage
    hey.
    i've got a mirror going:
    mirror [pitt.edu]

    the movies are here:
    movies [pitt.edu]
    have fun.
  • I don't read this site to read quick advertisements for .

  • Saw the world premiere at SXSW (Score:3, Informative)

    by jefflinwood ( 20955 ) on Saturday June 08, 2002 @07:13PM (#3666570) Homepage
    I'm not much of a TMBG fan, but I bought a South by Southwest film pass for fifty bucks, and I felt I had to see at least 8 movies to make it worthwhile :) Anyway, both of TMBG were going to be at the Premiere, and they hadn't seen the movie yet. Along with the director and a representative from the distributor.

    It was actually pretty cool. Those guys are total geeks, in every sense of the word. The only catch with the movie is the ending scene, those of you who have seen it know what I'm talking about. The director should have cut it.

    Some guy commented about Austin's SXSW being "elitist". I'm not sure what he's talking about, there were a few empty seats for the premiere! Anybody could have gone for 8 bucks.

    If you're a big fan, go see the movie!

  • "The Statue Got Me High", oh wait I did that to myself =\
  • If Triangle Man and Your Racist Friend had a fight, would Triangle win?

    Or, can you build a little Birdhouse In Your Soul with Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love?

    And shouldn't this film be about a Road Movie To Berlin?

    I feel like I've learned a lot from TMBG: Pet Rocks are cool, accordian music can be really groovy, and you can be a total nerd and still be a rockin' musician.

    On a serious note, does anyone know what the backmasking is in the first :10 of Hearing Aid?
  • a value added movie? cripes, where on this planet do I escape marketers?
  • They could always sleep their way to the top, but I'll bet their alarm clocks always wake them right up...

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