Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) (2002)

Director:

AJ Schnack

Genre:

Documentary | Music

Plot:

Documentary about the music group They Might Be Giants.

Plot Keywords:

Interview | Band | Music Video | Rock Band | Concert Footage

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

John Flansburgh	...	Himself
John Linnell	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Gina Arnold	...	Herself
Michael Azerrad	...	Himself
Adam Bernstein	...	Himself
David Bither	...	Himself
Frank Black	...	Himself
Linwood Boomer	...	Himself
Brian Cohen	...	Himself
Patrick Dillett	...	Himself (as Pat Dillett)
Sue Drew	...	Herself
Dave Eggers	...	Himself
Jake Fogelnest	...	Himself
Joe Franklin	...	Himself
Janeane Garofalo	...	Herself
Ira Glass	...	Himself
Jonathan Gregg	...	Himself
Dan Hickey	...	Himself (Drums)
Kurt Hoffman	...	Himself
Mark Hoppus	...	Himself
Al Houghton	...	Himself
John Houlihan	...	Himself
William Ingoglia
Mike Kelly	...	Himself
Jamie Lincoln Kitman	...	Himself (as Jamie Kitman)
Josh Kornbluth	...	Himself
Bill Krauss	...	Himself
Robert Krulwich	...	Himself
Michael McKean	...	Himself
Dan Miller	...	Himself (Guitar)
Glenn Morrow	...	Himself
Alex Noyes	...	Himself
Conan O'Brien	...	Himself
Annette O'Toole	...	Herself (voice)
Gary Ray	...	Himself
Andy Richter	...	Himself
Raoul Rosenberg	...	Himself
Harry Shearer	...	Himself
Paul Simon	...	Himself
Michael Small	...	Himself
Jim Stabile	...	Himself
Jon Stewart	...	Himself
Syd Straw	...	Herself
They Might Be Giants	...	Themselves
Sarah Vowell	...	Herself
Danny Weinkauf	...	Himself (Bass)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

Bonfire Films of America

Trivia:

The documentary shows They Might Be Giants holding a release party for their CD "Mink Car" at a New York City Tower Records store. Left unstated is that this party took place at midnight on September 11th, 2001, slightly less than nine hours before the attacks on the World Trade Center several miles away.

Quotes:

John Linnell: [about "Flood"] A lot of albums these days have ten or less songs on them, and that pisses us off. This new album of ours has nineteen songs. That's why ours is better.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs "The Civil War" (1990)

Soundtrack:

I Should Be Allowed To Think

As Enigmatic and Consistently Entertaining as the Band...

They Might Be Giants are one of the vanguards of rock music, and AJ Schnack's documentary does everything in its power to echo and reinforce that statement.

Gigantic is a great rock documentary, because it focuses on the band, the process, and their fanbase without becoming overly concerned with the personal lives of the artists. With the exception of musician Syd Straws scathing comments about the two "Johns" Flansburgh, and Linell : "So, are people being honest? Have they generally said NICE things about them? Yes? So, I guess those people don't really know them.", everybody involved in the film has nothing negative to say about the Johns, their creativity, their work ethic, and everybody from people who worked with the band early in their career, to people who work with them today all take great pleasure in extolling their own personal reasons for being TMBG enthusiasts.

No TMBG fan should go without seeing this movie, and fans of good rock documentaries will equally enjoy the great concert footage and musical interludes. (I submitted concert footage that didn't make it to the final cut of the film!)

John and John hosted the screening of the film that I saw, and as long as I've been a TMBG fan, I had never gotten a chance to meet and greet them personally. I'm pleased to say that they are as nice in person as one would imagine them to be!

My only gripe with the film, is that the filmmaker seems to build up to what can be noted as one of the bands greatest accomplishments, winning a Grammy in 2001 for the title track to Malcolm In the Middle "You're not the Boss of Me Now." then.....never gets there. The documentary ends right before that point in TMBG history. It's a small gripe, and I don't necessarily feel "cheated", but it's a very significant moment in the history of the band, and not many artists as far out of the "mainstream" as TMBG can make the claim that they have won the little gold gramophone statue for a million-selling album, much less a quirky TV theme song that didn't even make it to an full length TMBG album till AFTER they won the award.

But I digress.

A GIGANTIC film effort resulting in GIGANTIC fun.

-Frank