A quirky combination of indie music and mental illness

Rating: 8/10 (29 October 2014)

I wasn't sure what to expect from FRANK, although the trailers I saw for it definitely piqued my interest with what seemed to be a quirky, fish-out-of-water story. For what it's worth, that is what the film is initially. However, and I'll be as vague as possible to avoid spoiling anything, it ends up being a potent examination of mental illness that was quite touching. Domnhall Gleeson plays Jon, an aspiring musician who joins a band led by a mysterious man, Frank (Michael Fassbender), who always wears a giant papier-mache head over his own. Together, they journey out into the country to record an album and, eventually (due to Jon's constant stream of social media information) go to Texas to play SXSW. While that might describe the skeleton of the plot, what really makes this worth watching is the idiosyncrasies and quirks of the main characters, their humorous interactions and antics, and Jon's desperate attempt to make himself feel like a part of the group. You really get a sense of him as an outsider, although the people he surrounds himself with are probably even more societal outsiders than he is. The music they make isn't mainstream by any means. In fact, it's completely removed from that: it comes from the soul. I didn't particularly care for a lot of it, since it came off sometimes as being weird for weird's sake, but the conviction with which it is played and the enthusiasm of the band playing it makes it tolerable, even endearing. Everyone gives an excellent performance, especially Michael Fassbender who is able to make his character work despite having his head covered for most of the movie. Domnhall Gleeson is good too, but I would like to give special mention to Maggie Gyllenhaal. She was hilariously weird in parts, and other times deadly serious, but overall you got a good sense that she cared for Frank. Scoot McNairy also has a small-ish role, and he was decent as well. Overall, I like this film a lot despite not caring for the music in it. This is one of the best films I've seen this year and I would highly recommend others to see it as well.