Frank (2014)
Directed by Lenny Abrahamson
A young wannabe musician discovers he has bitten off more than he can chew when he joins an eccentric pop band led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank.
18 connections found
View:
18 films that influenced Frank
What critics say influenced Frank
Jon (Domhnall Gleeson), meanwhile, might as well be a modern-day incarnation of Salieri, the mediocre court composer who lived in the shadow of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (at least in 1984's Oscar-winning Amadeus).
As the group settles into its months-long recording session at a wooded retreat, Abrahamson lays bare the cult of personality through multiple Amadeus -worthy creative clashes, some of them howlingly funny.
But for those who can, it will prove a delightfully unusual tale that speaks to the chasm between genius and mediocrity in much the same way that “Amadeus” did, but adds the poignant observation that sometimes what makes someone appear exceptional is a matter not of extraordinary ability but mental distress.
Not since Claude Rains made his debut in “The Invisible Man,” in which his face wasn’t shown until the film’s final frame, has an actor been so visually constrained by a character as Michael Fassbender is as the title figure in “Frank,” a quirky, weirdly funny tale with an underlying layer of deep melancholy, about the fragility not only of art but of the human psyche.
But what a rebound—you know the head's coming off and Fassbender delivers moments of heartbreaking fragility that bring to mind the cult music documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston.
Though fictionalized, the film feels of a piece with a couple of like-minded music documentaries: “Dig,” about the feud between the Dandy Warhols and the more out-there Brian Jonestown Massacre, and “The Devil and Daniel Johnston.”
The model here could be Craig Mazin's The Specials, in which we got to see a superhero team on the days they weren't saving the world, but rather arguing amongst each other.
Advertisement
Yet even donning that gargantuan fake head (which brings to mind not only Sidebottom's but also the Lyndon B. Johnson head worn by artist Wayne White in the 2012 documentary Beauty Is Embarrassing), he carves out a complete characterization, employing his body expressions to expose how this man moves, feels, analyzes.
Unlike anything you’ve seen in recent memory, this rare bird (written by Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan) is certainly inimitable, but a grounding touchstone might be the energy and spirit of Richard Ayoade’s “Submarine,” but minus the stylistic visual flourishes.
Its plot kinda resembles a hipster version of "The Rocker," multiplied by the Brian Jonestown Massacre's weird behavior in the fantastic 2004 music doc "Dig!"
But “Frank’s” insights into human nature extend beyond the sphere of music, finding yet another fresh angle on the “Being There” fable, in which a mentally unsound man is mistaken by his peers as a prophetic figure.
Advertisement
In a run-away-with-the-circus development that makes Frank a sort of surrealist Almost Famous , the practically talentless Jon joins Soronprfbs when their keyboardist falls ill, and it's almost immediately evident that his role will be to free Frank of his Humpty Dumpty complex, inciting a falling down and the breaking of that single-expression crown.
The doppelgänger for the movie’s Jon is an uninteresting simp; he’s Almost Famous’ journalist-naif, sans the innate charisma or intelligence.
In the subgenre of movies that capture (or at least artfully dramatize) the birth of beautiful music (think Once or A Mighty Wind ), Frank is a stunner.