Frank


2014 musical odyssey

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A guy who wants nothing more than to be a pop 'n' roll sensation stumbles his way into a gig as a keyboardist for an experimental rock band after their normal guy tries to drown himself in the ocean. That band is fronted by Frank, a guy who wears and never removes the giant fake head seen on the cover up there. They retreat to the middle of nowhere to record an album and have some differences in opinion about what the band's goals should be.

Man, I loved this movie. I watched most of it and just enjoyed the darkish comedy and good performances--acting and musical. It was quirky, and the band's (Soronprfbs, if you want to try to pronounce that) trip to a remote cabin had enough parallels to Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band's recording of Trout Mask Replica, one of my favorites, to keep me happy. That album, by the way, was produced by none other than Frank Zappa. Soronprbs's musique concrete experimentation and meticulous recording process was, at least for me, fun to watch. And when they began recording? The music's probably not for everybody, but I thought it was downright euphoric!  Gradually, as the protagonist (not really the title character) began to be more and more of an influence, I figured out that this movie is actually about something. And it's a cool little conflict at the center of all of this--the struggle between the desire for popularity and acceptance from an audience and the creativity, passion, and relationships that go into creating something more pure. This also recalled another of my favorite bands--The Residents--and their Theory of Obscurity, the idea that great art can only happen if there is no audience. And although that transformation of Jon from a wide-eyed guy with big dreams to what is pretty close to a villain is pretty jarring, that transformation is what takes this from being nothing more than a quirky comedy to something with a message.

I'm not sure what this is saying about mental illness and the effect of mental illness on art or music. I'm sure it's saying something. Many of the characters have various mental illness, and one of them fucks mannequins. I know mental illness like the ones in this movie probably exist, but they're a little hard to accept all in one setting like this. Of course, as a character early on says, "You're just gonna have to go with it."
 
Michael Fassbender is mostly a voice and enough physicality to make him seem like a cartoon character. I hesitate to call it a good performance, but I suppose it was. I liked the mask and thought it was a lot more expressive than it should have been. I could have sworn that thing changed expressions as the camera hit it from certain angles. I liked Maggie "Stay Away from My Fucking Theremin" Gyllenhaal as his love interest, a psychotic synthesizer and theremin player. She also gets a couple fantastically somber musical numbers--"I Want to Marry a Lighthouse Keeper" and "On Top of Old Smokey"--a little later. She and the other band members all apparently played everything we're hearing in this movie which makes the whole thing even more impressive. These characters are taken through a journey that feels, despite the weirdness of the whole thing, like it could be real, and there's plenty of room in their story to really think about what's going on. It's a well-paced story with plenty of humor and an ending that is just about perfect.

7 comments:

  1. I'm surprised you only gave this a 16. I would shoot for a 17 easy. For a small, independent film full of quirk, there's actually a lot going on thematically. I'm not really familiar with any of the bands you mentioned (I've only heard), but this movie drew on a bunch of real-life entities. I mentioned that the character of FRANK was real in the late 80's/early 90's (played by the late British comedian Chris Sievey). The persona wasn't as much of a philosopher as the FRANK in this movie, but the randomness and the experimentation all seem to be embodied there. I don't know if the FRANK character is a tribute or a question if the real-life comedian Sievey was supposed to be a crazy genius...?

    I do think that you're absolutely right about what you said regarding "fame" and an audience. FRANK'S "Most Likable Song Ever" pretty much hit at the heart of pop culture and selling out and being marketable. Here's where the movie lost a few points for me, though. I think it fell short on the whole side story about uploading the videos of the band on YouTube.

    I also think there's much to be said about the mentally ill and their strengths/weaknesses. There's been so many savants (idiotic or not) that lack social graces and/or personability, yet still make up for it in artistic genius. They have a way of looking at the world without the blinders so many of us carry. I'd say this movie is questioning normalcy. Seclude a "sane" man with 4 mentally ill musicians for months at a time, and he may find that his way may not be the best/right way. I like how our protagonist turns into the antagonist. It was awkward, but worth it. Great ending.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Meant to watch some of the "real" Frank, but didn't get a chance.

    The Twitter and Youtube words that would pop on the screen were my least favorite part because I just thought it was too...I don't know...modern? Distracting? But I thought the storytelling part of that worked. I got from all of those that the main character was really desiring that fame and that they were gradually becoming a cult band with some followers eager to check them out.

    Protagonist turning into the antagonist...maybe my favorite part about the storytelling here. At the end, you could argue that it's a little ambiguous. Is Jon walking away from the band after they've reunited on his own, maybe because he's learned a lesson about what happens when you work too hard to please the masses? Or has he been dismissed? Like, he's Lucifer or something and the band has symbolically cast him away? I think I'd lean toward the latter.

    The more I think about Jon, the more he seems like a tempter. He saps their creativity, he gets in the middle of a loving (but kind of abnormal) romantic relationship, he tries to normalize things too much. He's the devil! As he looks scruffier and scruffier, he gets more and more subtly evil.

    Maybe "evil" is too strong there.

    17? No Scarlett. There are rules!

    ReplyDelete
  3. amy and i didnt really care for it. me 12 amy 13. some of the songs including the last one were really good. and i would give a pinky if that band exsistsed and had a long back story. paced a little slow. i didnt care for the ending. to say he(the redhead dude)didnt love music or art just doesnt work for me. he didnt share the rest of the bands vision and yes maybe he should have just gone along for the ride, but i wanted him to be happy frank had come out and maybe made a breakthrough instead of just walking away.
    as a final thought: maggie glyhnehall(thats actually close) was awful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't know what your issue was with Maggie G. I thought she was pretty good.

    Why did you want the main character to be happy? If you could point to anything in the movie that suggests he has a genuine love for music (or art), I'd maybe agree with you, but he was never in it for the right reasons. He wanted that popularity and success which is why he ended up ruining what the band had going for it. An "artist" who is just in it for that maybe doesn't deserve a happy ending.

    The walking away wasn't his choice. He was forced out by the rest of the band. No, none of them point their fingers and tell him to scat or anything, but he realized that he (a symbol of the motivation to appeal to the masses or whatever) wasn't wanted and that the band was better off without him.

    ReplyDelete
  5. i actually like this less after looking up frank sidebottom.
    they directly ripped off the mask and even named the character "frank".
    maybe i missed something. i dont understand why i am suppose to dislike the red headed guy. i dont think bands should dumb down their music but hell all they did was fuck around and waste the bad guys money.
    re: Mag. G. she hates the redhead guy. she likes the redhead guy and her lines were all very poorly written along the lines of "grr i dont like you" she just didnt have a whole lot to work with just a flat character for me.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The redheaded guy was totally the villain in this. That's the way I saw it anyway.

    Not sure how I'd feel if I actually knew the comedian's Frank character.

    ReplyDelete
  7. one of the frank videos i saw was a parody(?) ripoff(?) of a smiths song.
    out of all the songs in the movie the one i liked the best by far was the last one. i feel that song wouldnt have been written without redheaded guy. it had structure. the redhead dude is the only one that shows multiple emotions. i'm not going to watch this again anytime soon, but i will keep your reading in mind.

    ReplyDelete