Short Attention Span Review - Frank (2014) - With Paper-Mache Spoilers

Frank follows Jon (Domhnall Gleeson), a young office drone with dreams of being a famous musician. He gets his chance when the keyboardist for Soronprfbs goes mad while in his town. Jon joins the band, led by Frank (Michael Fassbender), who spends most of the film wearing a giant paper-mache head. They spend a year in the Irish country-side, recording an album. The manager - and former keyboardist - Don (Scoot McNairy) commits suicide and Jon fills in. He manages to secure a slot at SXSW, but it is a disaster. Synth-player Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal) stabs Jon and is arrested, drummer Nana (Carla Azar) and guitarist Baraque (Francois Civil) walk off, and Frank suffers a break with reality while on stage. After a few days Frank flees, leaving Jon alone. Jon finds out that he is well know from his Internet presence (mostly the meltdown at SXSW) but as an oddity, not as a musician. He eventually locates Frank - he has gone back to his hometown - realizes that his dreams of stardom led him astray, helps reunite the band and leaves, presumably to return to England and cubicle-land.

The plot is the well-worn "person loses self in quest for fame, learns valuable life lesson." What sets Frank apart is what the cast and crew do with it. Gleeson, Fassbender, and Gyllenhaal all turn in remarkable performances. Gyllenhaal in particular manages to convey concern, anger and a little madness with subtle facial movements and verbal inflections. Fassbender, wearing a mask until the end of the film, has to convey most of his performance verbally and with body language and does a good job of it.

While it has a dramatic core, it is also a very amusing film. The humor is of the surreal/absurdest style; i.e., along the lines of This is Spinal Tap and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It has some interesting themes. The obvious one is that a blind attempt to pursue fame is self-destructive. It also has something to say about the difference between being admired for your art and gaining social media notoriety based on looking and acting odd. The film also has a surprisingly depressing message about art and talent. Jon assumes that, if he had a tormented background - something he assumes the disturbed Frank had - he would also have the same musical talent. He finds that Frank was always talented and that the mental problems that Jon assumed were at the heart of his creativity actually lessened his abilities.

If there is any weakness, it would be the decision to partially break the fourth wall and have Jon's Twitter feed periodically scroll out on the screen. While an interesting device at first, it eventually becomes gimmicky in a non-gimmicky film. Some might also criticize the opaque nature of the protagonists motivations (except for Jon, whose motivation is clear). For the characters who matter, however (Frank, Jon, Clara, and Don) it actually is clear why they behave the way they do. It just isn't spelled out for the viewer in clunky exposition dumps.

Check it out.