Not an easy, accessible film but one that is engaging in what it does with the comedy and also the ideas of creativity, individualism and mental illness (SPOILERS)

Rating: Null/10 (6 June 2015)

Not sure if it is a prerequisite of posting here to use the word "quirky" to describe this film, but if you did a word-cloud of the user comments here then I guess it would appear as one of the bigger words. The plot sees a standard young man – boring office job, playing at writing songs in his bedroom on his computer – who gets caught up in a deliberately outsider band of musicians, the lead singer of which has a history of mental illness and spends every minute of his life wearing an oversized papier-mâché head. Said young man (Jon) joins them for what he assumed would be an one-off gig, but then ends up staying in a remote location to record their album.
There are many thoughts I had watching this film, and I am not entirely sure how to structure them into a meaningful order so that I can deliver this user comment in a way that makes sense. Since this had never stopped me before, then I will have a run at it here. There are many things. The first is that I do remember Sidebottom as an odd alt-culture character who existed on the edge of my awareness; I knew his name and what he looked like, but beyond that, not much detail – so I really brought nothing into this film in that regard, and treated it like a work of fiction. The second thing that struck me is the feeling of creative people not always being those who are seen as stars – together, sexy, beautiful people who everyone loves, but rather people who are out there, being creative for themselves rather than others. One person who came to mind is musician Jean Grae – someone who I continue to love, not because her output is always brilliant, but rather because her output is always what she wants it to be – so whether hip-hop, audio-books, or self- help albums, she is doing herself and feeling good about it – she will never be Jay-Z, but I love that she simply doesn't seem to care about this.
I thought of her while watching Frank because there is an element of this in the film – particularly where Jon walks away at the end, convinced that this world is not for him and that he really only ever saw popularity as the goal, not being happy with one's self (as shown by his on-screen social media, with follows/likes always displayed). This is the end of the film, and it is an interesting place for it to go since it does begin with a rather comedic focus on Jon, and then the introduction of the oddly comedic Sidebottom. The journey of the film gradually gets darker and less funnier though – which is not an easy sell but one that does work. The focus shifts from Jon's journey to be one that he is outside of, and while it is heavy in oddity and difficulties, it is strangely engaging. It touches on creativity, on mental illness, and on a spirit that Jon (and I) admire but do not share, and in doing all these things it is both flawed but yet effective.
The cast are impressive. Of course the headline is Fassbender, who is a huge star but yet spends the vast majority of the film as a 1980/90's UK masked cult figure. His performance is solid until the end, when it is great – producing a strong ending which lifts the film. Same can be said of Gyllenhaal, who is another surprise find in such an odd film. Gleeson is good because he leads when he needs to, but yet also can transition into the different film we are left with. Outside of these three the support is generally good. Abrahamson's direction is of high quality, and the writing produces an effective mix of the odd, comedic, dark, and engaging.
Frank is not a film for everyone – at times I was not sure it was a film for me; but it works. It draws you in with a comedic sense of oddity, but left me with much more than I expected – a piece about individuality, creativity, mental illness and dedication. It is not the film I expected and, while not an easy viewing, it s probably a better film for it.