Frank

Plot synopsis:
Jon (Domhnall Gleeson), an aspiring songwriter, witnesses a man trying to drown himself while walking along the beach of his town. The man is taken to the hospital and Jon talks to Don (Scoot McNairy), who explains the man was a keyboardist in an experimental band, the Soronprfbs, managed by him. Jon mentions that he plays keyboards and is invited to play with them that night. Jon goes along and meets the rest of the band, all of whom are reluctant about Jon, except Frank (Michael Fassbender), the band leader who wears a papier-mâché mask. The concert goes well, until Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal) breaks her theremin and storms offstage.Frank invites Jon to become a full-time member. He accompanies them to Ireland, where they will record their first album in a remote cabin for the next year. Clara is very antipathic towards Jon, and continually torments him for being mediocre and having no talent.Don explains to Jon that he wanted to be a songwriter too, and just like Jon lacked talent and was terrible. He plays a song for Jon, who compliments it. Don tells Jon that Frank is special, and that eventually Jon will believe that he either can be Frank or could at least be like him, but that it is impossible because Frank is unique. Don implies that this realization will hurt Jon the most, and that this is what is causing Don to be depressed himself. However, Jon feels that if he could just have hard experiences that he assumes Frank had (with his mental illness and believed hard childhood) that it would fuel him and get him to take the next step in his creativity. Jon believes that his time with the band will be the catalyst that will make this happen.The morning after they complete recording of their album, Jon finds Frank's corpse hanging from a tree. He calls the rest of the band down and they remove the mask, only to find it was Don wearing Frank's mask. Don is cremated and Jon is told that Don was the band's first keyboard player; every keyboard player that followed him has had some kind of mental breakdown.Afterwards, Jon reveals he has been posting the band's recording sessions online. The Soronprfbs have gained a small following and have been invited to South by Southwest. Clara is against going to South by Southwest, and accuses Jon of manipulating Frank and giving him delusions of grandeur. During one of their fights, Clara and Jon's hatred for each other turns into passion and they end up having sex, but Clara tells Jon that he disgusts her and they will never be together again. However, Frank wants to be popular and to create "extremely likable music" so he decides to go; Clara warns Jon that if things go badly in Austin she'll stab him.Upon arrival in Texas, Jon, Frank, and Clara scatter Don's ashes, but realize the band's guitarist Baraque (Francois Civil) accidentally packed a canister of powdered food instead of the ashes. Afterwards, the band travels to Austin, while signing up for South by Southwest Jon and the band discover that they aren't as popular as they thought, and that the crowd will have no idea who they are and will have never listened to their music before. Upon hearing this, Frank starts to become erratic and has a panic attack. Clara sees the changes in Frank and knows that he can't handle this situation, so she pleads with Jon to help convince Frank to not perform and go back to their unknown status. Jon refuses and works with Frank to try to create a more likeable version of their songs. On the day before the concert, Clara and Frank disappear. Jon finds them in an alley where Clara is trying to calm Frank and get him to agree to leave.Jon convinces Frank to ignore Clara and to do the gig. Clara stabs Jon in the leg and is later arrested by the police. Back at the hotel room Drummer Nana (Carla Azar) and Baraque accuse Jon of getting rid of Clara and quit the band. Jon and Frank become a duo. As they go onstage, Jon announces that it's the best day of his life and begins singing one of his own songs. Frank falls over and when Jon rushes over to him to check on him, Frank tells Jon that his music is bad, suffering a nervous breakdown. Frank passes out on stage with Jon trying to revive him. The next day, Jon attempts to reason with Frank and tries to remove his mask. A panicked Frank runs out of the motel room and is hit by a car. Jon gives chase but realizes Frank has escaped, leaving only remains of the mask behind. Jon subsequently gets hit by a car.After being released from the hospital, Jon goes to a diner. When other patrons refer to him and the band as "freaks", it dawns on him that their internet popularity was never about the music, they were simply laughing at how strange they all behaved. Sometime later, Jon has attempted to track down Frank in order to make amends, but he cannot be found anywhere. However, he finds a bar where Clara, Nana, and Baraque are now playing. Jon finally succeeds in tracking Frank to his hometown of Bluff, Kansas, where he is living with his parents. They explain that Frank has had mental health issues all his life and began wearing the mask as a teenager. Jon questions Frank's parents about his childhood. They tell Jon that Frank had a loving family and a happy childhood. Jon realizes that there was no traumatic event in Frank's life that inspired Frank to become a musical genius and his mental illness never propelled him but limited him. Jon now sees that Frank's amazing talents aren't from traumatic events or from his illness, that Frank's genius was just inherent, and that he will never be able to be like him; just as Don had told him. Jon finally see Frank's face, only to see a despondent man with scars on his face and bald spots on his scalp from the prolonged use of the mask. Jon apologizes to Frank for ruining the band and trying to take off his mask. He then takes Frank to the bar where the band is. Frank begins to speak and they realize who he is. He begins singing and joins them in a song while Jon leaves the bar.

Tags: comedy, entertaining

Review:
Although you might assume a movie about an alternative rock band with a lead singer who wears a giant fake head that he never takes off would be a work of fiction, the truth, as they say, is stranger, and provides a compelling basis for a movie."Frank" is co-written by Jon Ronson based on his experience playing keyboard in the Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band in the late '80s.
Ronson based the film's main character, Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) on himself; both real and fictional Jon found themselves randomly in this band, ditching their existing lives in pursuit of musical greatness, trying to make sense of the enigma of the man in the giant head.With screenwriter Peter Straughan's ("Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy") help, Ronson dives into a fictional replication of his experience with the band.
Jon has the time of his life and agrees to travel to Ireland with the group, only to discover it's not a road trip to play a few shows, but a retreat at which the unorthodox Frank will stop at nothing until he's recorded an astounding new album.For all the mystery shrouding his character, Frank is far from the most eccentric band member.
At the same time, this leads to an honest, moving redemptive arc in the final half hour of the movie, when this bizarre flower of a story opens up to reveal its fragile insides."Frank" can feel rough and disjointed tonally at points and grow a little irksome, but much like how a band with a weird sound still has artistic integrity somewhere underneath that drives that creative choice, "Frank" stays committed to looking at talent, creativity and mental illness in a very authentic, productive way that makes it worth the quirks.~Steven CThanks for reading!
The trailer promised quirky indie escapism, possibly some decent music, and some references to SXSW – ahhh, there is such beauty in under-promising and over-delivering.For a brief moment, it feels like Frank will be little more than a stylized fictional Behind The Music type of movie because the central narrative is observed and reported from the viewpoint of an involved outsider, the new guy in the band.
In the 1980s Ronson played keyboards in the Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band in which Frank wore a big fake head and nobody outside his inner circle knew his true identity.In a small quiet English seaside town Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) tries to pursue his passion for writing songs in between working at his humdrum day job.
Shortly after he finds himself travelling with the band to Ireland to record an album which ends up taking him on a pretty epic journey.Jon's new band members are a weird, odd bunch of characters which include the slightly crazed and volatile Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal), Don (Scoot McNairy) an ex-keyboard player of the band who now operates as a kind of manager, and then there's Frank the band's enigmatic front man played by Fassbender and who insists on wearing an over-sized fake head at all times.Frank is a hard film to easily define and although it manages to remain on the right side of upbeat with plenty of laughs it does gently broach issues revolving around mental health.
The exploits of the band trying to make a album touch on notions of artistic endeavour, originality and the sphere that songwriters and musicians have to encounter in trying to be creative.While generally having to be the subject of suspicion and hostility enforced by most of the band Jon is encouraged by Frank's friendship and welcome remarks about his on the face of it tragically lame attempts at songwriting and starts to be become more emboldened about his actual merits and worthiness.
Gleeson does a terrific job in portraying his character Jon's transformation and voyage from awkward geeky young dude trying hard to fit in, to feeling like he was the main man in charge of the band's destiny and even catalyst towards the success he so craves.
It begins with silly and funny inner-dialogue from an aspiring musician/songwriter (Domhnall Gleeson), transitions into a dark dramady with complex characters and dialogue, and finishes as a bleak statement on mental illness and the music business.That's more than I would typically disclose, but some have described the film as an outright comedy and I find that unconcsionable.
Social Media power is on full display as this avant-garde performance art band gathers a huge following prior to ever really producing any music.Without seeing Frank's facial expressions, we witness his transformation from mystic/guru to an unstable and socially uncomfortable dude striving for likability, but unsure what the term really means.
For Fassbender in particular there needs to be a special award for succeeding in being intensely moving whilst wearing a false head.So although the movie as a whole doesn't quite add up to more than the sum of its parts, it is nonetheless a wonderfully quirky, often hilarious, strangely touching piece of work.
It was inspired by Frank Sidebottom in so much as the story is about a band whose front man wears a big papier-mâché head.It's a really lovely story of an odd group of musicians and their new keyboard player Jon. The musicians are all a bit barking and the beautiful Maggie Gyllenhaal is the craziest.
The whole cast are superb and Michael Fassbender is excellent under the head as well as showing that he is a great vocalist too.The film is engaging, funny and moving.It also made me jump more than any horror movie ever has.
It has some wonderful scenes that made me laugh out loud and the direction is just beautiful with some truly clever touches.It starts with a very unusual aural soundscape that draws you in immediately and finishes with the band's songs playing over the credits that guarantee you won't leave until the final note of "Lone Standing Tuft".Incidentally a documentary about Frank Sidebottom is in production right now and Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story will be out soon..
Fassbender is great and the head thing really works for him Frank is a hard film to easily define and although it manages to remain on the right side of upbeat with plenty of laughs it does gently broach issues revolving around mental health.
Frank was funny, entertaining, played 'toytown' version of famous songs, and was only slightly weird.Parts of the rehearsal sessions in the house seemed reminiscent of stories of the late Captain Beefheart virtually imprisoning his band in California whilst dreaming up 'Trout Mask Replica' - but there another set of similarities ends abruptly.The music throughout is naïve and dreadful - and this comes from someone who is interested in many forms of experimental music.If you don't know or care about the real Frank Sidebottom, you might enjoy this film.
Why is he not singing awful songs?I would have preferred to see a biopic about the ACTUAL Frank, whose story is far more interesting.Also the head was "too good" in that it looked well made as opposed to a crappy papier mache mask.And no little frank?Maggie Gylenhall is perhaps the least attractive human being alive.Domnhall Gleeson gives a great performance though..
I especially loved their take on the idea of making popular music, and Frank's attitude towards it.I like how they used the "creative isolation" aspect of many (real) musicians story in a fictional setting.
I had the bad luck of paying into a cinema to see this movie and have to put it up with one of the top three worst movies i have ever seen in a cinema, there was people walking out after ten minutes into the movie, how they got these A actors to star in this movie i will never no, the only good thing about this movie was the poster, so as the saying goes never judge a film by it poster because i did and lost 2 hours of my life which i will never see again, the movie was like watching a cross between one flew over the cuckoo's nest and the muppets,just when i thought michael fassbender could do no wrong as a actor he starred in the biggest crap in history.
But despite Frank's trajectory is that of someone with mental illness, there's not too much of a feeling of cringing when he does some oddball choices (for example, for a friend's ashes, he instead tosses out into the wind flour), and the writing hatches on to these folks being true to themselves.So, by the time the group makes its album, and heads by luck to SxSW to play a gig, they're not so unusual anymore.
Or, maybe that's the character himself, harping on the same beat of 'I want to make good music, here's a song!' Where he goes and how he takes charge and deals with the conflict of this group, while things go from weird to shocking to sad to weird and off-putting and delirious and sad again, makes so much of the film engaging and different and with integrity.
Anyway, I did stick with the film because I was wondering what direction the storyline was going to take, but I was expecting better.Budget: $1million Worldwide Gross: $1.2millionI recommend this movie to people who are into there comedy/drama about a band trying to make an album in the middle of nowhere, with a lead singer who won't take off an extremely large head.
The lead character of the film however is Jon Burroughs (played by Domhnall Gleeson) who runs into the eccentric band members at the right time and is offered a chance to play the keyboards for them.
Like Frank's band's music, not everyone is going to love this film, but it is a very good one.
The performance objective is what satisfies the viewers by a great cast like Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Michael Fassbender as Frank himself.
A gig in Ireland and an album-recording project in a lakeside cabin are on tap.The band is led by Frank (Michael Fassbender wearing a large paper- mache type head mask), whose music reflects mental illness as well as talent and who never takes off his above-mentioned mask.
Almost all of the characters are great and complex from Jon (Domhnall Gleeson), Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal), Don (Scoot McNairy), and of course none other than Frank (Michael Fassbender).
Frank was a different movie and often took turns and was quite fun in the sense that it was truly unpredictable something that is almost impossible to find in modern day films, the film provided interesting characters and music.
The actors do a good job in creating a bunch of quirky characters that you love to watch while exploring their near surreal world.Overall Frank is a very watchable movie even if it somewhat loses its way towards the end..
The movie tells the story of Jon a wanna be musician who is given a chance to join this quirky band called the Soronprfbs lead by this mysterious character called Frank who always seen wearing a paper mache head.
Frank is a quirky, thrilling, and extremely entertaining film about an underground musician with a huge fake head and his band's mission of making an album, which is led astray by a newcomer.
With its incredible soundtrack and stellar performances from Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson, and others, it's truly worth watching.Lenny Abrahamson does a great job of blending the music the bands play into the soundtrack for the whole film.
That's only a minor gripe though, as I personally am a huge fan of this film.Overall, with a great story, acting, soundtrack, and more, Frank is a unique and excellent movie that I would recommend anybody to watch..
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.
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).
Frank's flow seems to constantly run into roadblocks and a cast of originally interesting characters grow to become non-interesting and mismanaged to a point where our centrepiece Jon Burroughs played by the always decent Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal's sour Clara and Scott McNairy's not given enough to do Don all fail to give us much with the film falling back onto the ever reliable shoulders of Michael Fassbender to once more bring it back.Fassbender is a real joy as Frank (based on real life musician Chris Sievey) which is no mean feat considering his recognisable face is hidden behind a gigantic plastic head.
Jon, a young wanna-be musician, discovers he has bitten off more than he can chew when he joins an eccentric pop band led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank (Michael Fassbender).How to categorize this film?
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.
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, paper-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.
Despite there being enough plot, character, humour, and substance to fill its 85 or so minutes this really isn't something for everyone, or indeed something that every film fan must watch, as it's a movie largely about a group misfit ex-mental patients clanging together pots and pans, one of whom with a Frank Sidebottom likened head, which really is strange for the sake of being strange.
Leading a fairly direction-less life otherwise he accidentally witnesses the attempted suicide of the keyboard player of a travelling band led by papermache head wearing lead singer, Frank, apparently played by Michael Fassbender, (though I cannot help but wonder if a body doubled did all the scenes for him until the end and he did ADR the rest.) Frank never takes off his mask, not even in the shower, the rest of the band take to Jon with varying mixed degree's.
There's something very watchable about Domhall Gleeson as the lead Jon, a young man out of his depth, he's likable and too me made the film bearable as most of the time I couldn't really hear Frank's muffled words and the other band members were annoying at best and arbitrary to the story for the most part.
However he is quickly drawn into a world of total chaos by Soronprfbs; an electric band which Jon stumbles upon and there bizarre front man Frank (Michael Fassbender).In truth I am unconfident in calling Frank a comedy or any kind of genre at all really, it isn't laugh out loud funny, but at times it is pitch black in it's humour.
This strange movie was inspired by the experience of writer Jon Ronson who spent a while as a keyboard player with a band led by the late British Chris Sievey, the creator the comedy character Frank Sidebottom who wore a huge head which he never removed.
The group is filled with multiple eccentric characters; like Clara (Gyllenhaal), who seems to hate Jon, and their mentally ill lead singer Frank (Fassbender).
When it comes to actual story line of the movie;The struggle of a wanna be Star is jeopardized by frank and by his band who just want to enjoy the music.Nonethless Lenny The Director has made a good job portraying the film like a piece of an Art.SoundTracks By Michael Fassbender are Bonus for the Movie.
One major gimmick of Irish director Lenny Abrahamson's music drama-comedy FRANK is its star Michael Fassbender (the "it" actor presently) will only appear with a giant paper mask containing his head and never reveal himself in the entire film, but spoiler alert!
Quirkily funny movie about a rock band with a lead singer (played by Michael Fassbender) who constantly wears a plastic head to hide his identity.
This is my first time seeing Domhnall Gleesom in anything, and he is definitely a talented actor, Maggie Gyllenhaal has a strange role that was certainly different for her, and Michael Fassbender shines as this very unique character, there really is no film character quite like Frank, he is hilarious, but you can also really feel for him.
Jon offers to play in the band where the lead is Frank (Michael Fassbender) in a giant head which he never takes off.
There are great actors on board, like Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal or Domnhall Gleeson, but music is the main character here.
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.