Not lacking in originality, but a difficult ride if you don't care for the characters

Rating: 6/10 (28 November 2018)

Frank is a film that is misleading in two ways - firstly, despite reprising the head, the titular character is not an attempt at the existing Frank Sidebottom character. Secondly, it is often presented as a comedy, which is true in some ways but ultimately the film is more a sort of dark comedy/satire that largely veers into drama territory and away from jokes.
That said, the film documents a young keyboardist who is drafted into a band led by the titular Frank. The band is avant-garde and difficult with Frank as a sort of underappreciated genius who inspires devotion from his band - a devotion which allows him to push them to their outer limits both artistically and personally. The young keyboardist desires to push things in a more radio-friendly direction and this creates tension with the existing band members who tend to see Frank's art as sacred.
Without giving away too much of the plot, the film explores the tension between these two impulses and the members of the band who support either one - and how a sudden rise in popularity pushes that tension to a boiling point.
All of this has the makings of a great film, but there is little to grasp onto. The music is alright but hardly the avant-garde masterwork it would need to be to make the discussion of Frank's genius make sense. The general underlying thought of the film seems to be that everyone's interest in Frank is primarily for their own greedy reasons - that the mask (literally and figuratively) and not the man behind it is what drives their interest. This would befit a character who had an eccentric but undeniably masterful body of work - word-of-mouth cult figures like Daniel Johnston, R. Stevie Moore, and Gary Wilson come to mind - but the music itself is unfortunately somewhat forgettable and this undermines Frank's own outsider art appeal. The characters are largely quite greedy and self-involved in keeping with that theme, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I don't think the film keeps the requisite distance from the characters to make it work, and so you are left with the sense that it wants you to both identify with and dislike everyone. The effect, for me, was exhausting - but I can understand the appeal for many.
The film is certainly well shot and well acted, and it is deserving of recognition for its unique concept, but it left me and my friends somewhat cold and empty afterwards. If you're looking for a straightforward comedy about being in a band, like this was marketed as, you'd best go for the Swedish film "We Are The Best" which has a more empathetic approach to its characters that contrasts with its darker undercurrents. If you want to explore a unique take on the phenomenon of the outsider artist and the struggle over artistic license, and don't mind a massive dose of cynicism in the process, then you may strongly connect with Frank in a way that I couldn't.