Movie Review: Gigantic

"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.

Comments

Some just won't get it, even if they try...

[EvilFrog]

It bothers me when people refer to people as 'terrible musicians'. Music, like many art forms is subjective. I never got the appeal of Picasso, but I don't think he's a 'terrible painter'.

The thing about TMBG is you have to have very eclectic taste in music to appreciate them. Their style is all over the place, and you can't just hear one or two songs and know what they sound like. If you were to play 'Boss of Me', 'Particle Man', and 'A Self Called Nowhere' next to each other, a newcomer would be hard pressed to believe it's the same band.

The depth of their songs comes from figuring out what exactly they're about. Their songs are rarely simply nonsense, they just don't ever directly tell you what they're supposed to mean.

'Birdhouse In Your Soul' for example. Here's a song that seems to make very little sense at all. The trick is that if you pay attention, it's a song written from the perspective of a nightlight shaped like a canary.

Someone once told me song lyrics are like poetry with a learning disability. TMBG lyrics are like poetry with a severe case of insomnia that can't stop giggling...

Hello Music Club Kills TMBG

[arfy]

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.

Re:I don't get it

[ainsoph]

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 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.