Frank

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.

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.

"Frank" explores the fine and not-so-fine line between creative genius and insanity. Although you might assume a movie about an alternative rock band with a lead singer who wears a giant fake head that he never takes off would be a work of fiction, the truth, as they say, is stranger, and provides a compelling basis for a movie.

"Frank" is co-written by Jon Ronson based on his experience playing keyboard in the Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band in the late '80s. Frank Sidebottom was the alter ego of a man named Chris Sievey, who wore a giant fake head almost identical to the one Frank (Michael Fassbender) wears in the movie. Ronson based the film's main character, Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) on himself; both real and fictional Jon found themselves randomly in this band, ditching their existing lives in pursuit of musical greatness, trying to make sense of the enigma of the man in the giant head.

With screenwriter Peter Straughan's ("Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy") help, Ronson dives into a fictional replication of his experience with the band. Gleeson's Jon is an aspiring songwriter completely lacking in inspiration who gets an unusual opportunity to play a gig for an experimental band called Soronprfbs after he witnesses their keyboardist attempting to drown himself. Jon has the time of his life and agrees to travel to Ireland with the group, only to discover it's not a road trip to play a few shows, but a retreat at which the unorthodox Frank will stop at nothing until he's recorded an astounding new album.

For all the mystery shrouding his character, Frank is far from the most eccentric band member. In fact, he's the most congenial. We also learn about the other keyboardist, Don's (Scoot McNairy), volatile history with mental illness and musician Clara's (Maggie Gyllenhaal) propensity for violence. Unsurprisingly, Jon's gleaning from it all is that deep adversity and mental anguish is a pre- requisite to talent.

Director Lenny Abrahamson brings a natural yet surreal quality that honors the weirdness of the story, while also helping us access the psychology of the characters and take interest in what's happening in a very rooted way. He keeps the reality of what's going on with its characters in play while experimenting with a number of scenes that push the bizarreness to varying levels. There are elements of black comedy, but also of honest, soul-stirring truth.

The first half of "Frank" focuses more on the creative process and the mental headspace necessary to operate at peak creativity. When Jon signs them up for a very promising gig and begins pushing his own creative agenda, forcing the story to leave the confines of the Ireland vacation home, the film turns to examine the real pain of its characters and what happens to creativity when complications of fandom and notoriety enter the mix.

Throughout it all we see a gradual change in Jon as a character, and he becomes less likable because of all that his dreams and naiveté have wrought. This has a slightly adverse effect on the viewing experience, making it kind of painful to watch all these troubled characters with their misguided attitudes drown themselves in a sea of expectations and principles. At the same time, this leads to an honest, moving redemptive arc in the final half hour of the movie, when this bizarre flower of a story opens up to reveal its fragile insides.

"Frank" can feel rough and disjointed tonally at points and grow a little irksome, but much like how a band with a weird sound still has artistic integrity somewhere underneath that drives that creative choice, "Frank" stays committed to looking at talent, creativity and mental illness in a very authentic, productive way that makes it worth the quirks.

~Steven C

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The movie has 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. The comedy is effortless, the dialogue is smart but not pretentious, the performances are elegant and understated. Fassbender is great and the head thing really works for him 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

Funny, endearing movie led with a strange, flinty charm by Domhnall Gleeson, and expertly directed by Lenny Abrahamson. Within what is fundamentally a straightforward story, a lot of themes are packed - artistic credibility, the easy triumph of mediocrity, the nature of identity and individuality. And there are more. Too many, really.

The writers are keen to maintain a light tone, as if wary that the heavier themes might weigh us all down too much. Fortunately they have two major, definitely not mediocre, talents on hand to maintain the required balance: Michael Fassbender and Maggie Gyllenhaal, who are both amazing. For Fassbender in particular there needs to be a special award for succeeding in being intensely moving whilst wearing a false head.

So although the movie as a whole doesn't quite add up to more than the sum of its parts, it is nonetheless a wonderfully quirky, often hilarious, strangely touching piece of work. Well worth seeing and supporting.