|
How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 16 March 2014
This article is a review of FRANK.
|
“What goes on inside that head, inside that head?” Jon Burroughs (Domhnall Gleeson) to Frank (Michael Fassbender)
What a bizarre music-biz comedy! Fans of Fassbender acting, immerse yourselves in a revelatory comedic performance. Fans of Fassbender visage, prepare yourselves for a cover up. In the vein of the excellent I’M NOT THERE, director Lenny Abrahamson and writers Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan have sidestepped the standard, trite muso biopic. Thankfully that hoary clichéd formula: rags-to-riches-to-addiction-to-fall-to-redemption is nowhere to be seen. Playing with comic persona Frank Sidebottom, alter ego to Chris Sievey, the team create a fictitious interpretation.
Sharing a similar D.N.A. to the Coen’s sublime INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, making it in the record industry has never been so fruitful to filmmakers (see also CAN A SONG SAVE YOUR LIFE? and BENNY & JOLENE). As opposed to Oscar Isaac’s talented folkster unwilling to compromise, our entry into the world is hapless office drone Jon, not really having any talent but content to sell-out what little he has. Trying to find a muse in the everyday, the cringeworthy results are shamelessly dwelt on – excruciating bedroom keyboard endeavours have to be watched through prised-apart fingers.
|
|
|
Amazon UK
|
Amazon USA
|
A chance meeting with The Soronprfbs on the beach, as their keyboardist attempts to drown himself and is sectioned, opens up a space in the band. That night at a barely attended hotel bar gig we finally meet Frank. A hissy fit, thrown by thermin-playing Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal), ends the concert in seconds. Requesting his services, manager Don (Scoot McNairy) invites Jon to Ireland to help record their album.
FRANK makes unruly correlations between creativity and mental illness. A significant proportion of the band has been a patient of psychiatric institutions. Don was in such a ward for “f*cking mannequins” – one of them was called “Caroline Cuntley” (according to Frank). Genius-plus-insanity-plus-music perhaps reached its zenith with Milos Foreman’s AMADEUS (1984); though there’s still room to explore it. Erratic, barely glimpsed output means we have to take Jon’s word for Frank’s virtuosity. Providing the chorus of agreement are the group; Don, “F*ck, I want to be Frank.” That Michael Fassbender wears a fibreglass head, open expression painted on, and still exudes vast charisma lets the audience (occasionally at least) give the benefit of the doubt to that idea. Humour at everyone’s expense is never demeaning towards mental illness. If anything the portrait of instability lends anarchic unpredictability to proceedings. (Patience-testing may be a by-product for viewers sympathetic to Jon’s burgeoning ambition.)
What was meant to be a weekend jolly turns into an 18-month tragi-comic adventure – though more of the latter than the former, until the climax, which has unexpected pathos.
|
|
We have selected movies below that we think will be of interest to you based on this review.
Using these Amazon affiliated links help us keep Filmaluation free for all film and arts lovers.
Amazon UK
|
|
|
|
|
Amazon USA
|
|
|
|
|