BEFORE: Michael Fassbender carries over from "The Snowman" to something a little more upbeat, I hope. This is a film that I had on my Netflix list for a while, just for the curiosity factor alone, but it scrolled off of Netflix before I could get to it. So, iTunes is once again functioning as a catch-all, it's going to cost me $3.99 but I think I can take that hit, as long as this doesn't happen too often. I'll be on Netflix for the next three nights and then on Academy screeners for a few nights, so right now whatever gets me to February 1 has got to happen.
After February, I'm good until about March 12 or 13, when I plan to review "Captain Marvel", but then I have to figure out how I'm going to get from there to "Avengers: Endgame". One links to the other, but I'd rather not sit on the "Captain Marvel" review for over a month, because if it's this year's "Black Panther", then everyone could be talking about it.
I thought maybe I could link a bunch of documentaries together to fill the gap, but that's not easy because as I learned last year, and the year before that, the IMDB cast lists for documentaries are notoriously unreliable, especially when it comes to archive footage appearances. But I tried to assemble the docs on my list into some kind of coherent chain, which only works for about half of them, and then I noticed that a comedian in one of them is in another film with Jake Gyllenhaal, who was just announced as a villain in the upcoming Spider-Man film. So it might make sense to riff off of that, and start the documentary chain in July to either lead into "Spider-Man: Far From Home", or to follow after it, I haven't decided. Whichever gives me the best options, I guess.
This linking thing gets tricky when some films have very few cast members - tonight's film only has about six major roles - and others have a lot. Tomorrow's film is something of a tentpole film because it has nearly 50 credited actors of note, and from there I could go just about anywhere. In fact it seems like a shame to just focus on two of them, and let about 16 potential linking possibilities go to waste. But what can I do? I can only precede a film with one other film, and I can only follow a film with one other film. And I'm compelled to keep doing that for as long as I can, with "Avengers: Endgame" as my next destination film, with about 22 possible actors that I can link to.
So in the near future, I'll need a chain of about 33 to 36 films to get me from March 23 to April 26, between two films with a lot of actors. Mathematically I know there must be thousands of possible chains, so really, it's just a matter of me stumbling on one that I like, but also leaves me plenty of linking opportunities for the rest of the year. I can't even calculate it now, because in a month I could have 20 or 30 new films on my list, and that means more possibilities that I don't have now. Plus right now it seems like a daunting, maddening task.
THE PLOT: Jon, a young wanna-be musician, discovers he's bitten off more than he can chew when he joins an eccentric pop band led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank.
AFTER: OK, now that I've watched the film I can do a little research. I've got some experience with weird bands, like I enjoy listening to cover bands like Big Daddy (80's songs performed in a 50's style), Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (soft songs in a hard punk style), and Richard Cheese (hard modern songs in an old lounge style). Hell, I even collect Dread Zeppelin CDs (Led Zeppelin songs in a reggae style, with an Elvis impersonator on lead) and saw them play live once. But as far as the performing in costume thing, I don't really go for bands like Mac Sabbath (McDonaldland characters performing Black Sabbath songs) and I'm not even a fan of KISS. My only real reference point is the Residents, a band that's been around forever, they play wearing giant eyeball masks to conceal their identity, and nobody really knows their names. (Only I once worked on a documentary about them, and I kind of gave one band member a ride home. So I know things, but I'm sworn to secrecy.)
It turns out there's another guy, though, who wore a giant head much like the one seen in today's film, and his name was Chris Sievey. With the big cartoonish head on, he became a character called Frank Sidebottom, so that's clearly an inspiration for the character of Frank here. I suppose I would have known this if I'd kept up with my collection of Beatles cover albums, because he performed "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" on the 1988 tribute album "Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father", which is currently only available on vinyl, not CD or download. But Chris Sievey passed away in 2010, and he was best known for fronting a band called The Freshies, but the screenwriter of "Frank" was Jon Ronson, who played with Frank in a band called the Oh Blimey Big Band. Robson also wrote a book called "Frank: The True Story that Inspired the Movie" and there was a documentary that was completed last year called "Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story", so I'll have to keep an eye out for that. Looks like it could be out in theaters soon.
But let's just stick to the 2014 film "Frank" for the moment. Jon joins a band that needs a keyboard player, and somehow he's not deterred by the fact that he saw their last keyboard player try to drown himself in a lake. Umm, that should have been a warning sign. So's the fact that the name of the band seems unpronounceable - it's The Soronprfbs. Like it seems to start out OK, but then what happened, did someone run out of vowels? (According to an arbitrary ranking I just found online, the list of the worst band names of all time includes "Let's Get Out of This Terrible Sandwich Shop", "Test Icicles", "Cerebral Ballzy", "We Butter the Bread With Butter", and "Adolf Hitler's Nipples". More familiar names like Limp Bizkit, Butthole Surfers, Chumbawamba and Enuff Z'Nuff are also on the list, but the clear winner at #1 is Hoobastank.).
And surprisingly, Jon doesn't run for the hills when he finds out the band's lead singer wears a giant paper-mache head, like all the time. He doesn't even take it off to eat, drink or shave, or even wash his face, so you've got to figure it's probably getting pretty gamey under there. And Jon doesn't even bolt when the band doesn't seem to want to rehearse - instead they prefer to sort of make it up as they go along, following the lead of Frank, who engages in a sort of improv slam poetry, or something. Before long, the band is off to a "gig" in Ireland, which involves living in rustic cabins and engaging in team-building exercises while preparing to record an album, and they're prepared for it to take as long as it takes. Which then manages to stretch on for months, as Frank insists the WHOLE album must be rehearsed, over and over, until perfect before any recording takes place.
Frank starts describing his unseen expressions for Jon, since they can't be seen through the mask, but Jon still can't help wondering if this man is more crazy than genius - really, there's such a fine line sometimes, which I think is one of the points this film is trying to make. And there are indications that maybe Frank is the SANEST one in the band, or even that all the band members met while inmates at the same asylum or as part of a therapy group. I mean, come on, who plays the THEREMIN, for goodness sakes? Only insane people, right?
There's a lot for me to like about this plot, because I also happen to work for/with some very creative people who also all have their own quirks, some of which drive me crazy, but hey, that's the job. And I've learned to console myself by thinking that someone who is great at writing and directing movies, known in some circles as talented, genius even, but who has no idea how to balance a checkbook, or apply for an insurance policy, or even book an airline ticket, well, that's somebody I want to stay close to. My best advice for anyone getting into the entertainment field, based on what I've seen and learned, is that every really creative person needs someone close to them who can do these things, like rent a car or get them a booth at Comic-Con or even buy food and beer for the office Christmas party. I've made an entire career out of this, for over 25 years now, and as for job security, the more things you volunteer to handle, to allow that person more time to just create, the more that creative person will come to depend on you, even to the point where they can't even consider making art without you there to handle all the grunt work. Trust me on this.
Jon starts tweeting about his experiences with the band, and making YouTube videos about their creative process, which don't seem to make much sense, but at least the videos start racking up the hits and likes. This even leads to an invitation to perform as the prestigious SXSW Film & Music Festival in Austin (which is very cagey, because then even if "Frank" the movie sucked, I bet there would still be one festival that would program it, no matter what...) But given how the band starts to REALLY fall apart once they hit Texas, Jon starts to wonder if he might have pushed them too far, or too fast. I've lived in this space, too - before my annual trips to Comic-Con began, I went to Sundance/Slamdance three times to help promote animated features, back in 1998, 2001 and 2004. "Frank" feels like a very Sundance-y film, and while I'm not sure if it played there, it was a nominee for the Audience Award at, you guessed it, the 2014 SXSW Film Festival.
Who is the man under the mask? Is he talented or just quirky? A genius or a madman? Can the band get past their differences and bring it together, and if they can, should they? Or maybe a band's not meant to stay together for long, and we should just appreciate the time that they had and the work they were able to produce. I certainly watched enough rock documentaries last year to determine that it's nearly impossible for band members to get along for any extended period of time, unless they're the Rolling Stones, and even the Stones have had their differences over the years, and, let's face it, should have packed it in long ago. But if they did, then there would be room in the marketplace for, like a dozen more terrible hipster bands, so maybe we're better off in the long run with the Stones out on the road.
Also starring Domhnall Gleeson (last seen in "Peter Rabbit"), Maggie Gyllenhaal (last seen in "Cecil B. Demented"), Scoot McNairy (last seen in "Promised Land"), Carla Azar, Francois Civil, Lauren Poole, Hayley Derryberry, Tess Harper (last seen in "Ishtar"), Bruce McIntosh, Alex Knight.
RATING: 6 out of 10 cans of Grownut
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