Review #818: 'Frank' (2014)

To try and create a film based on or around the life of musician Chris Sievey, frontman of 70's/80's group The Freshies, or his alter-ego Frank Sidebottom, a papier-mache-head donning presenter with a thick Mancunian accent, would be absolute folly. Rather than attempting to create such a redundant biopic, director Lenny Abrahamson, and writers Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan, have used Sidebottom's legacy and traits as a template to toast eccentric (and possibly mad) artists everywhere and condemn the new social media platform which does little to celebrate them.

Young, aspiring and likely talentless keyboard player Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) cannot believe his luck when Don (Scoot McNairy), member of avant-garde group the Soronprfbs, invites Jon to play with them following the mental decline of their own keyboardist. He packs and eagerly joins them, only to arrive in a countryside hut in Ireland where the band are to stay indefinitely to complete their next album. Theremin player Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal) responds to Jon's inclusion with aggression, but Jon is taken by the group's charismatic singer, Frank (Michael Fassbender), a man who refuses to take off his giant, papier-mache mask or conform to the traditional song-writing process.

As the album gets closer to completion (with Jon growing a huge beard in the process), the band become popular due to Jon's frequent Twitter and Facebook video postings revealing their unconventional recording techniques, frequent outbursts and erratic behaviour. It is from this that the film succeeds in it's satire of an increasingly connected world. The followers start to pile up, and it looks as if their first gig will be well attended. But is it the music the fans are in it for? Or do they simply wish to witness first-hand the collapse of a band so riddled with idiosyncrasies that they have become the subject of blood-thirsty ridicule? Jon, finding himself completely seduced by the attention and becoming increasingly dislikeable, lusts for fame at the expense of art and originality.

At the centre of it all, is Frank himself, wonderfully played by Fassbender (although you wouldn't guess it was him under that mask). His innocence, and clear mental instability, is reminiscent of Daniel Johnston, the schizophrenic singer-songwriter from California, who creates beautiful work in his own unique way, despite the odds against him. Frank, with no trace of irony, asks Jon "why cover anything up?". Frank the character and Frank the movie are, in equal measures, funny, moving, thrilling, and best of all, really fucking weird. A third a celebration of pure, unfiltered art, another a sad portrayal of our sadistic thirst for freak-shows, but most of all, this is a superb story wonderfully told.


Directed by: Lenny Abrahamson
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy
Country: UK/Ireland/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie