Frank

To simply describe Frank (Michael Fassbender) as eccentric would probably be the most obvious understatement in music history. As the frontman of the experimental rock band 'Soronprfbs', Frank not only sings about greasy ginger croutons and eels in jelly, he is also literally the head of the band: Frank never takes his oversized papier-mâché head off his shoulders, neither for his bizarre live performances nor in everyday life. Not even the band members have ever seen his face underneath. When the Soronprfbs' keyboard player drops out, daydreamer Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) joins the band as a replacement. Their first gig together ends in disaster, but the debutant is allowed to stay. Highly motivated, Jon takes the band to the Irish woods to record an album with them, while he gets the band more and more social media attention and thus an appearance at the legendary SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas. In the remote cabin, however, it dawns on Jon what he has gotten himself into. Especially when the jealousy-fueled hatred of band keyboardist Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who doesn't want to lose her beloved Frank and the band's indie status, actually turns violent. Leonard Abrahamson's ravishingly charming outsider drama “Frank” revolves around inspiration, creativity and its commercialization. The well-dosed jabs at the sell-out of the music industry, in which click and follower numbers are becoming the new quality benchmarks, hit the mark. This detailed indie production knows what it's talking about when the initially cool, insecure concertgoers in a dimly lit bar eventually turn into excited festival hordes - hot for the YouTube-hyped newcomer band on the verge of commercialization. And indeed, with Michael Fassbender's dark voice reminiscent of Ian Curtis, these songs have the potential to become veritable experimental hits. His masquerade only hints at a psychological background late on, while the battle of bromance (Frank & Jon) versus romance (Frank & Clara) threatens to tear the entire band project apart. “Frank seems overwhelmed by the world, the bullet head functions like an anonymizing airbag of life. The use of the mask, which conceals every identity and emotion and was inspired by the British comedian and musician Frank Sidebottom, who wore it in the early 1980s, seems to be the result of unbearable pressure. [...] The fact that the prominent, perfectly cut face of Michael Fassbender is hidden behind the large papier-mâché head and that the film band “The Soronprfbs” already has a Facebook page on which fans winkingly demand a tour takes the game of hide-and-seek about star identity and media reality beyond the film.” (Kathrin Häger, on: filmdienst.de) “A bittersweet ode to the love of pop music and one of the most beautiful films of this fall” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)