33. Frank

This was a Netflix view on Thursday January 15th. This film is a bit of an indie darling. It got a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.5 out of 10 on the IMDB. Domhnall Gleeson is Jon, a wanna be singer/songwriter who lives at home with his folks, with a mindless office job and mundane life. One day he runs into an incident at the ocean where a man is trying to drown himself. It turns out the guy is a keyboardist in a band playing at a local club and with a little luck, Jon is "hired" to be the new keyboardist by the band's manager Don (Scoot McNairy). The band is called Soronpfrbs and their fronted by Frank (Michael Fassbender), a man in a papier-mache head.

Kind of resembles Davey from Davey and Goliath.

You can see the resemblance.

As Jon starts to loosen up on stage Clara's (Maggie Gyllenhaal) theremin blows up and she storms off stage ending the show halfway through the first song. Some time passes by and Jon gets a call a call at work from Don, Frank wants him to join the band, they're going to a remote island in Ireland to record an album and they're leaving tomorrow. Believing he's found his artistic calling in Frank, Jon joins the band. Jon thought he'd be back at work after the weekend but the recording session took a year. During that time, they jam, experiment but aren't recording songs. Jon and Frank take a liking to each other. Jon looks at Frank as a free spirit and wants to take the band to the next level. The other band members, especially Clara, don't like Jon and resent the fact that he is putting the recording session on Youtube. Don kills himself and the band holds an amateur cremation ceremony.

Things start to look up as Soronprfbs starts piling up Youtube hits and generates interest from SXSW. Frank is intrigued by this and wants to go in order to make "extremely likable music." Clara is dead set against going to Austin. The band gets to Austin after botched attempt to spread Don's ashes in New Mexico. It's mostly Jon and Frank who enjoy themselves at SXSW and they believe that they have a following. However Jon is informed that there isn't much of a following. Frank starts to become erratic and Jon tries to get Frank to work on the songs to make them more likable. The band tries to get Frank and Jon to leave but Jon refuses. Two of the band members leave during the night and Clara stabs Jon. Jon recovers and manages to get Frank on stage to perform Jon's songs. Frank has a breakdown on stage ending the show before it starts. The dream has ended. While in a motel, Jon tries to remove Frank's head and both are hit by cars. Frank escapes but the head was destroyed.

Jon searches for Frank but to no avail. He winds up running into the other members of Soronprfbs at some dive bar as a trio. Eventually Jon finds Frank in his hometown of Bluffs, Kansas. Jon learns from Frank's parents that he has always been musical but a bit off. He started wearing the head while in high school. Jon learns that Frank had no traumatic moment that caused his "genius" nor did his mental instability. This is where Jon realizes he'll never be like Frank. The film ends as Frank reunites  (sans head) with Soronprfbs for a song as Jon quietly leaves. 

The film is called Frank, but it's really about Jon and his dream of becoming a songwriter. Jon is a talented musician but he can't write songs for sh*t. When he meets Frank he sees this visionary genius that he wants to become. He feels that Frank's genius must derive from some trauma or from whatever reason he started to live his life with a giant papier-mache head. But that's not the case, a person either has it or they don't. Jon doesn't have it. Soronprfbs were happy being an unknown, quirky musicians that didn't really make music. Jon comes along and feels he can ride their coattails to fame. Clara, Nana and Baraque are musicians who just want to be musicians. They think Jon is a d*ck for trying to make them into a band that plays likable music. To them, everyone is a sellout. They play music (usually bad) for the sake of playing music. Heck, even jazz musicians need to pay the bills. 

This is a pretty good film, I don't think it was worthy of a 92% on rottentomatoes.com but it is different. It's apparently based on Chris Sievey, a British musician and comic who;s character Frank Sidebottom wore a papier-mache head. There are some problems with the film but to me it's a situation where the reality of the problem gets in the way. For example, Don's death. They just cremate his body and they don't have to explain to any authorities what happened. Don doesn't have a family who's going to wonder where he is? Where do these guys get their money? No one has any income as they're not playing any gigs or selling records. Jon had a regular job but he would've blown through his savings during the year long recording session. It's not that big a deal as the film needs to move along. This film isn't for everyone as there are stretches where it moves slowly. Solid acting all around and a good story. If you like independent films than you should view this film.