Big Things
2022 · 10m · Canada
Directed by Eric Peterson
Tones: contemplative, humorous, melancholic
An aspiring musician juggles a sports apparel day job, his band, and the people in his orbit while chasing something larger in a small city. The film catches the small humiliations of pursuing art on the margins.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Winnipeg, a sports apparel job, and a guy who'd rather be a musician. No big speeches, no big break, just the funny grind that prestige indies refuse to admit is the actual texture of artistic life.
A Winnipeg-set portrait of a working musician at a sports-apparel warehouse is the kind of regional specificity I'm always rooting for, and Peterson's deadpan reportedly catches the precise delusion of being almost-on-the-verge. Small but well-aimed.
Winnipeg-set portrait of a guy at a sports apparel warehouse releasing songs online — "brief excitements followed by disappointments" is exactly the rhythm of being on-the-verge, and that's a specific musical experience to nail. Deadpan-comedy register is the right key for it.
Reviews
An understated, quietly funny portrait filled with awkward exchanges and idiosyncratic behavior.