I was drawn to Frank
by its seemingly quirk-driven premise of a main character who never removes a
giant papier-mâché head placed over his real head. It seemed gimmicky, but the reviews from the
film’s theatrical run were quite positive, so I thought I’d give the film a
shot. And frankly, this film is much
more than I was expecting it to be. Part
comedy and part cultural critique, Frank
starts off in pretty mundane waters, only to reveal itself as one of the most
profound films of the year.
The film’s ostensible main character is Jon, an aspiring
musician who can’t seem to write anything more than a couple of jingly lines at
a time. He stumbles across a strange
band with an unpronounceable name: Soronprfbs, full of eclectic characters, the
most notable of which is Frank, the film’s aforementioned selling point. After witnessing the attempted self-drowning
by the band’s keyboardist, Jon volunteers his services to the band of misfits,
and from there is whisked away to a remote location to help record the band’s
first album. This portion of the film
plays like your fairly standard fish-out-of-water comedy, with Jon acting as
the straight-man to the Frank-idolizing producer, a violently hateful theremin
player, and, of course, the creative visionary himself, Frank.
The film has a very deadpan sense of humor, placing the story's bizarre circumstances on display without any sort of wink or acknowledgement
that these are intentional jokes. And
yet, that’s part of the film’s narrative genius. As the film progresses, it becomes increasingly
clear that not everything is as clear cut as the initial premise would
suggest. The comedy becomes less and
less prevalent, and eventually the film becomes a full-on message piece about
the freak show fame that our society gives to those with mental illness based
purely on their extraordinary quirks.
I don’t want to give too many of the film’s later plot points
away, but the most important and fantastic part of this film is the narrative
gut-punch it delivers in the final third.
Essentially, events transpire that recontextualize everything that came
before, and it becomes blatantly clear that we as the audience have been party
to the victimization of one of the characters.
See, the film takes a pretty hard stance on how popular culture views
mental illness and disability as a fundamental aspect to creative genius, and
whereas the first part of the film seems to indulge that ideology, the latter
portion makes it gut-wrenchingly clear that this is not the case. If anything, we as a culture enable harmful
pathologies by labeling them as the hallmark of the artistic savant, and this
film wants to make sure you recognize how you and everyone else are part of the
problem.
It’s hard to say much more without spoiling the surprise,
but I would be remiss to not mention that Michael Fassbender is fantastic as
the titular Frank, creating a complex and likeable character without being able
to use facial expression to convey emotion.
It’s superbly done, and proves that Fassbender is one of the acting
greats of our time. And that greatness
is reflective of the film as a whole. This
film is not only an enjoyable one, but also a very important one with its novel
message presented through a brilliant narrative twist. This is one of my favorite films so far this
year, so I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a smart and poignant flick
that will likely be overlooked come awards season.
Know any other brilliant films that have flown under the
radar? Share your favorites in the
comments below.
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