Plot
Jon, a young wanna-be musician, discovers he's bitten off more than he can chew when he joins an eccentric pop band led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank.
Release Year: 2014
Rating: 7.3/10 (2,548 voted)
Critic's Score: 71/100
Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Stars: Domhnall Gleeson, Moira Brooker, Paul Butterworth
Storyline
Jon, a young wanna-be musician, discovers he's bitten off more than he can chew when he joins an eccentric pop band led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank.
Writers: Jon Ronson, Peter Straughan
Cast: Domhnall Gleeson -
Jon Burroughs
Moira Brooker -
Jon's Mother
Paul Butterworth -
Jon's Father
Phil Kingston -
Radio DJ
Billie Traynor -
Cafe Lady
Shane O'Brien -
Lucas
Scoot McNairy -
Don
Maggie Gyllenhaal -
Clara
François Civil -
Baraque
Carla Azar -
Nana
Chris McHallem -
Paramedic
Michael Fassbender -
Frank
Michael James Ford -
Port Official
Mark Huberman -
Management Guru
Rosalind Adler -
German Mother
Trivia:
Frank is based on late British comedian Chris Sievey's iconic comedy character Frank Sidebottom. See more »
User Review
Author:
Rating: 9/10
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.
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