Frank (2014)

Nice effects though.

Better Late Then Never

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Frank is a relatively unknown and limited released independent film. Starring Domhnall Gleeson (as Jon), an untalented rock-star wannabe, gets a lucky break when, on an English beach, he meets Don (Scoot McNairy), who manages an art-rock band. Furthermore very quickly, Don hires Jon to replace the group's suicidal keyboardist. A gig in Ireland and an album-recording project in a lakeside cabin are on tap.The band is led by Frank (Michael Fassbender wearing a large paper- mache type head mask), whose music reflects mental illness as well as talent and who never takes off his above-mentioned mask. Frank shows kindness and support to Jon, while the other band members tend to dislike him. Also followed by, hostile is theremin player Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who maintains a strong protective (and romantic) interest in Frank. Jon is clueless to Frank's fragility. He also doesn't understand the band's disinterest in commercial success.This film is quite well written and acted well, which is why it is an entertaining watch. Michael Fassbender played as Frank is easily the star and most likable and watchable on screen in this film. The audience is eager to watch whatever he does, and the main reason is with him wearing the mask over his head. The comedy in the film isn't laugh out loud which works here as it is not forced, and more subtle. Frank is relatively short in running time, where they perhaps could have added about 10-15 more minutes, but otherwise the film is quite interesting and unique as it is entertaining.

Untalented as a songwriter but nevertheless set on making it as a musician, a young Irishman quits his day job to join an eccentric band whose lead singer dons a papier-mâché mask that he never removes in this offbeat drama. Domhnall Gleeson is fine as the milquetoast young protagonist who becomes more and more of an authoritative voice in the band and Michael Fassbender has some solid moments in a mostly voice-only performance as the singer; his observation about normal human faces being a little strange themselves certainly resonates. The talents of the two leads are, however, hardly maximised here. Stories about the rise and falls of bands are a dime a dozen and 'Frank' does little to distinguish itself other than the mask, which soon becomes more of an annoying gimmick than delightful quirk as it distracts from Gleeson's character growth. The music is hardly great either, though the film's weakest area is its supporting characters; it is hard to feel for the band's highs and lows when we only get to know two of them in depth. Then there is the love-hate relationship between Gleeson and Maggie Gyllenhaal which never rings true. Having Gleeson constant tweet about his experiences with his tweets appearing over the action is a further jarring touch that subtracts from the immediacy of the action. Director Lenny Abrahamson would of course later go on to score an Oscar nomination for directing 'Room'. This earlier effort is a strikingly different sort of motion picture at least and may be of interest to those retrospectively exploring his filmmaking origins.

A beautiful film, extremely well done body acting by Michael Fassbender and very fun score. I still have the soundtrack and listen to the closing song almost weekly. The score imitates pretentious indie culture music and pokes at the lack of talent it can take to make music. While mockingly pretentious, it is still enjoyable and not *too* artsy fartsy. It's odd characters and dialogue create a mystical quirky feel to it that had me thinking about . Lots of the funny parts are done in the classic dry British humor, mixed with sarcasm. It also had parts that were just childish and fun, and brought out the humour of the entire situation in the plot. Although it plays around with satire and nihilism, it also features some dark moments and messages about suicide and depression, in a very realistic manner.I'd say the movie only falls short in plot progression as it slows towards one part, but otherwise the acting, cinematography, score, and writing are all top notch.

I truly wanted to like this movie so much. After I saw the trailer I was so excited. However, it turned out to be 90 minutes of gloom and despair with a sad ending. It's true the acting is good if not great but I cannot say I enjoyed this movie at all. For some reason I cannot submit a review with less than 10 lines of text. So I will be blabbering on for the next few. If you're reading this I would like to apologize for wasting your time and hope that my review didn't break your balls. I am only at 8 lines as of now so I will still be blabbering on for a bit. I am currently watching the new X-Men: Apocalypse film and will apparently not be doing a review on it considering I can't find enough content to write. That's all for this guy.:(