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:

Hide Away Folk Family

See This.

A great movie made even better on DVD. Not just for fans of the band, it will be entertaining for non-fans as well. This film could be taught in film school as a primer on concise editing and pacing for the most difficult of genres, the documentary. Of course it will be ignored come Oscar time because it commits the two cardinal sins of documentaries: 1) it is in no way about World War II; 2) it is entertaining. The DVD is maxed out with deleted scenes (cut only, one presumes, for length not quality) and insightful commentary by the makers and "the Two Johns". Certainly one of the gems of 2003.