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...

You've missed the point

[Anonymous Coward]

They aren't about being funny. They are about making the music they want to make. They cover many styles of music across their 9 albums. Their songs sometimes describe very odd people or settingsm but they usually tell a story too. In fact, "I've Got a Match", for example, is a song about a guy fighting with his girlfriend and finally leaving her. He's calling insensitive and hurtful, and tell her "I've got a match - Your embrace and my collapse". They tend to use somewhat silly lyrics, but they get the point across.

(BTW, the original phrase is "I've got a match - your face and my as*")

Will the movie be available by phone?

[stefanlasiewski]

TMBG used to have an inovative service called "dial-a-song". 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, which is also free when you connect from work!

Re:But the important question is...

[ainsoph]

I work for Seattle International Film Festival and from what I know, films such as Gigantic will do the festival circut in attempts to pick up distribution. I was speaking with the director of Who The Hell is Bobby Roos last night, and he was telling me about how rough it is to get your film picked up, even getting a deal for video.

So depending opon the response at the festivals, and the eyes that see the film, it may or may not get picked up.

mirror

[gimpboy]

hey.
i've got a mirror going:
mirror

the movies are here:
movies
have fun.

Re:Hello Music Club Kills TMBG

[TomHandy]

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.

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.

Saw the world premiere at SXSW

[jefflinwood]

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!