Frank

I happened to see the trailer for a movie I had never heard of, called Frank, at 8:45AM this Saturday morning. Within five minutes of seeing the preview, I found that the Angelika Theater at Mockingbird Station was the only place in Dallas showing this wonderfully bizarre looking movie, and by 10:20AM, I was sitting in a dark room with about twelve other people, waiting to see just what this giant paper-mache head had in store for us.

Maybe I should step back to explain that last part. Frank revolves around an avant-garde musician names Frank, who is never seen without an oversized paper-mache mask on. The trailer promised quirky indie escapism, possibly some decent music, and some references to SXSW – ahhh, there is such beauty in under-promising and over-delivering.

For a brief moment, it feels like Frank will be little more than a stylized fictional Behind The Music type of movie because the central narrative is observed and reported from the viewpoint of an involved outsider, the new guy in the band. The outsider point of view is a perfect choice, however, because the audience then has the same questions as the narrator so we're all in it together. Is the end product of music/art as important as the process of creating it or who you create it with? Frank captures the ambition and compulsion of creating art and very harshly slaps away any generalizations of how or why an artist is the way he is. The paper- mache head isn't a gimmick for the movie or the music.

On the topic of music, Frank and his band The Soronprfbs, are easily ranked in the top five fictional bands – The Wonders(That Thing You Do), Stillwater(Almost Famous), Eddie & The Cruisers(Eddie & The Crusiers), Wylde Ratttz(Velvet Goldmine), and The Soronprfbs(Frank). The music falls somewhere between The Flaming Lips, Jim Morrison, and an extremely catchy coffee shop rambler.

The band is absolutely mesmerizing every single second they are on the screen and much of that credit has to go to Michael Fassbender. Because we can't see his face, every bit of emotion must be poured out elsewhere. Fassbender delivers an extremely physical performance. From the combination of his hands and voice, to the way he shuffles when uncomfortable, to the way he loses control when he sings, the small crowd that happens to see Frank this year will be seeing one of the best performances of 2014.

It has been almost two days since I saw Frank and I still can't get it out of my mind. Maybe it's the music or maybe it's the acting but I think the bigger reason is that it asks the questions I thought only I had. How does someone create something both abstract and powerful? What part of my brain should I be tapping into? Why can't I? Frank is a photograph of the special brand of artistic jealousy that wants to be or at least be part of something bigger and better than ourselves, all while realizing the privilege of simply getting to be witness to that greatness.

So Frank is a great film. Let's be clear, this is not a bio-pic. It was inspired by Frank Sidebottom in so much as the story is about a band whose front man wears a big papier-mâché head.

It's a really lovely story of an odd group of musicians and their new keyboard player Jon. The musicians are all a bit barking and the beautiful Maggie Gyllenhaal is the craziest. The whole cast are superb and Michael Fassbender is excellent under the head as well as showing that he is a great vocalist too.

The film is engaging, funny and moving.It also made me jump more than any horror movie ever has. It has some wonderful scenes that made me laugh out loud and the direction is just beautiful with some truly clever touches.

It starts with a very unusual aural soundscape that draws you in immediately and finishes with the band's songs playing over the credits that guarantee you won't leave until the final note of "Lone Standing Tuft".

Incidentally a documentary about Frank Sidebottom is in production right now and Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story will be out soon.

-What happened to Frank? -Something must have happened to make him like that. -Nothing happened to him. He's got a mental illness. -The torment he went through...to make the great musc. -The torment didn't make the music. He was always musical. If anything, it solwed him down. ---

Frank is like "Experimental Music: The Movie." Its wild and weird and seemingly meaningful. It's also kind of boring. And the music kind of slaps. Idk man.

Michael Fassbender dons a huge fake head in the enjoyable Frank showing at Sundance London. The movie is a fictionalised account based on a book written by journalist Jon Ronson who also co wrote the screenplay. In the 1980s Ronson played keyboards in the Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band in which Frank wore a big fake head and nobody outside his inner circle knew his true identity.

In a small quiet English seaside town Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) tries to pursue his passion for writing songs in between working at his humdrum day job. Even given his undoubted enthusiasm for trying to be creative Jon struggles to actually write anything even vaguely resembling a half decent couple of lyrics. On Twitter he likes to tweet his songwriting status or more the lack of it along with updates on what he is eating for lunch. But when a band comes to town and their keyboard player goes off the rails he sees opportunity knocking to join the band for an actual gig. Shortly after he finds himself travelling with the band to Ireland to record an album which ends up taking him on a pretty epic journey.

Jon's new band members are a weird, odd bunch of characters which include the slightly crazed and volatile Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal), Don (Scoot McNairy) an ex-keyboard player of the band who now operates as a kind of manager, and then there's Frank the band's enigmatic front man played by Fassbender and who insists on wearing an over-sized fake head at all times.

Frank is a hard film to easily define and although it manages to remain on the right side of upbeat with plenty of laughs it does gently broach issues revolving around mental health. The exploits of the band trying to make a album touch on notions of artistic endeavour, originality and the sphere that songwriters and musicians have to encounter in trying to be creative.

While generally having to be the subject of suspicion and hostility enforced by most of the band Jon is encouraged by Frank's friendship and welcome remarks about his on the face of it tragically lame attempts at songwriting and starts to be become more emboldened about his actual merits and worthiness. Gleeson does a terrific job in portraying his character Jon's transformation and voyage from awkward geeky young dude trying hard to fit in, to feeling like he was the main man in charge of the band's destiny and even catalyst towards the success he so craves. Ultimately though a hard lesson in self discovery awaits him.

The movie keeps you guessing about what is going to happen next and trying to work out the main characters and how they interact with each other. In the history of bands there are lots of examples of artistic spats, personal issues and tragedies, conflicts, inner working quirks and inspiration which are all evident in Frank.

Summing up Frank is a thoughtful, imaginative and amusing piece of work making for a hugely watchable and enjoyable movie.