Frank Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

Frank Blu-ray Movie Review

Frank-ly, My Dear, I Don't Give a Damn

Reviewed by Michael Reuben December 11, 2014

The Irish-British co-production Frank was inspired by non-fiction accounts of English musician Chris Sievey, to whom the film is dedicated. In addition to his musical career, Sievey established a comic identity as "Frank Sidebottom", whose head was made entirely of papier-mâché (and, later, fibreglass). A former member of Sievey's band, Jon Ronson, published articles about his unusual career, then partnered with screenwriter Peter Straughan (who had written the screenplay for Ronson's book, The Men Who Stare at Goats) on a fictional script about a Sidebottom-like character who never removed his artificial head—ever.

The result has been widely praised, thanks in no small part to an inspired performance by Michael Fassbender, who was attracted to the challenge of creating a character primarily through body language without being able to show his famously expressive face. Director Lenny Abrahamson (What Richard Did) surrounded Fassbender with a superb cast and directed the film with a light touch and appreciation for the situation's comic potential (which is emphasized in the trailer). But Abrahamson and the screenwriters also want to address more serious concerns about fame, talent and artistic aspiration, and those are the areas where the film loses its way. As much as I admire the people involved and would like to join in the critical celebration, Frank left me cold.

Abrahamson has described Frank as a dramatic opposition between a musician who wants fame and fortune but lacks talent, and one who has plenty of talent but no interest in success. The former is the film's hero and narrator, Jon Burroughs (Domhnall Gleeson, About Time), a young man with a dull job from a stable middle class home in a small English town, whose only anguish in life is that he has no anguish from which to draw artistic inspiration. He's a competent keyboard player, but every time he tries to write a song, the result is drivel. A Twitter addict, Jon's tweets flash across the screen throughout the film, supplementing his voiceover that, at least initially, is a lengthy whine about his frustrated ambitions.

The talented side of the equation is represented by a band with an unpronounceable name led by the mysterious Frank (Fassbender), who never removes his cartoonish artificial head, even to eat, sleep or take a shower. A chance encounter lands Jon an evening's work with the band as a substitute keyboard player, and before he knows it, he's been whisked off to Ireland ("kidnapped" would be a more accurate term) to record the band's album at a remote cabin on Vetno Island. The only person who talks to him at first is the guitarist, Don (Scoot McNairy), a recovering mental patient. Frank takes time to warm up to Jon, while the stony-faced synth and theremin player, Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal), never does. The two French members of the band, drummer Nana (Carla Azar) and bassist Baraque (François Civil), barely pay Jon any attention.

As weeks extend into months and Frank's bizarre methods of musical exploration result in little by way of finished recordings, Jon becomes more frustrated and desperate. All the while, though, he falls further under Frank's spell, as the inscrutable musician warms to the new member and dazzles Jon with his ability to toss off original lyrics and melodies with ease. So convinced is Jon that he's hitched his wagon to a future star that he empties his savings account to pay the group's room and board. It would not be an exaggeration to describe Jon as a dutiful member of a cult, with Frank as the charismatic leader.

But Jon does something that shatters the sense of splendid isolation in which Frank prefers to work and is viewed by his fellow band members as a betrayal. He posts the group's sessions online and gets enough followers to wangle an invitation to the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. The result is a pitched battle between Jon and Clara for Frank's loyalty, which Jon ultimately wins, but the trip is a disaster in a way that is somewhat foreshadowed by the behavior of one band member (I am being deliberately vague on purpose). Having gotten just close enough to the spotlight to hear the roar of the crowd, Jon realizes—foolishly and far too late—that he's been playing with a band that was never meant to be popular, led by a putative genius who was never meant to have an audience. The scene in which Frank plays for the group the "likeable" song that Jon has persuaded him to write is featured in the trailer, and it's one of the film's goofiest. It's also one of the most pathetic.

A poster in the Blu-ray.com forum commented that he would have enjoyed Frank more if the music had been more interesting, and it's a revealing observation. Throughout the film, we are told what a talented musician Frank is, but, despite the clever pastiches created by composer Stephen Rennicks of various fringe singer-songwriters, we never hear Frank's genius the way we do, say, Mozart's in Amadeus. What we see is a group of obviously desperate, lonely and broken souls attaching themselves to a bizarre figure who they imagine will fill a hole in their lives but very obviously cannot. Jon should have been tipped off after watching the keyboardist he replaced try to drown himself in the ocean that working with Frank was a dead end. It led Jon's predecessor to the emergency room. What made Jon think it would lead him to stardom?

Without giving away the film's third act, there's a good reason why Jon's effort at partnering with Frank is doomed from the outset and why the attempt to play SXSW turns out as it does. Jon may lack talent, and Frank may have it, but talent doesn't automatically lead to success. The old adage about genius being one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration still holds true, and even then countless obstacles lie in one's path—which is why some of the finest and most influential musicians of the 20th Century had to settle for whatever artistic satisfaction could be had from laboring as anonymous studio players (see the documentaries Muscle Shoals and Standing in the Shadows of Motown ). Who knows how many thousands more languish in menial jobs and routine lives without the opportunity to realize the artistic talent with which they were born? Frank doesn't probe that reality so much as exploit it for quirks and giggles. The film ends on a sour note so that it can claim to have a serious core, but really it's just hollow.

Frank Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Frank was shot digitally by James Mather (Lockout ), and it looks terrific on Magnolia Home Video's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, which was presumably sourced from digital files. The image is sharp and detailed, the blacks are excellent, and the colors and densities shift capably from the green Irish countryside to the arid American southwest (the Austin scenes for SXSW were shot in and around Albuquerque, New Mexico). Magnolia has provided their usual generous average bitrate, which clocks in at 29.53 Mbps, ensuring that some of the livelier scenes of crowds and band performances have plenty of bandwidth.

Frank Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's 5.1 mix, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, provides an effective sense of the different environments that is immediately noticeable when we are first introduced to Jon at the beach and in his parents' home as he tries to compose music. As the sound team relates in the extras, they built up a library of location recordings at the Dublin country house where the film's middle act is set, so that the ambiance for those scenes would be authentic. The crowds and noise of SXSW provide a striking contrast.

The various musical performances, both individual and collective, were performed and recorded live on set, and they combine the immediacy of production sound with the clarity of a digital mixing board. Stephen Rennicks' songs and soundtrack play with excellent fidelity and dynamic range (whether or not you like the songs is a different question), and all of the dialogue is clear, including the French and German, which is subtitled. The mask on Fassbender's head changes the tone of his voice, but his lines are perfectly audible.

Frank Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Many, but not all, of the extras, overlap those of the Region B edition of Frank released earlier this year by Curzon Film World. That edition had a second audio commentary with the screenwriters. Unique to Magnolia's Blu-ray is a substantial interview with director Lenny Abrahamson.

• Commentary with Director Lenny Abrahamson, Actor Domnhall Gleeson and Composer Stephen Rennicks: The director, composer and star chat amiably about the experience of making the film, focusing primarily on the experience and logistics, while touching only lightly on the underlying themes. If you want to hear about the experience of interacting with Fassbender as Frank, or rehearsing Gleeson's hot tub scene with Gyllenhaal, this is the place. Also of interest are references to various dropped scenes (and portions of scenes) that are not included on the disc.



• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 2.35:1; 11:17): A "play all" function is included. The longest of the three scenes depicts the band's creation of an entire song based on the sound of a door at the cabin where they are recording. "Ayahuasca" refers to a rare drug that Don describes to Jon and which he eventually tries in yet one more effort to unleash his (non-existent) creative potential.
• Psychosis
• Ayahuasca
• Creaky Door



• Behind the Sounds (1080p; 1.78:1; 10:19): The film's sound team—Steve Fanagan, sound designer; Ken Galvin, re-recording mixer; and Niall Brady, supervising sound editor—discuss their approach to the soundtrack and the tricky process of recording live performances on a film set.



• Behind the Mask (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 2:10): The director and cast, along with production designer Richard Bullock, briefly address the challenges of creating a character whose entire head is a mask.



• Meet the Band (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 4:42): An introduction to each of the band's members by the actor playing him or her.



• What Is the Name of the Band? (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 3:08): The multiple spellings and inability to pronounce the band's name is a running joke in the script. Different cast members offer their preferred version.



• Interview with Director Lenny Abrahamson (1080p; 1.78:1; 19:22): Without the distraction of colleagues, Abrahamson is able to offer a far more focused overview of the film's themes and production than he provides on the commentary track. For anyone who wants to understand what the director was aiming for, this is the place to start.



• AXS TV: A Look at Frank (1080p; 2.35:1; 2:44): This is a typical AXS TV promo, in which the film's trailer is expanded with interview clips.



• Trailer (1080p; 2.35:1; 2:07).



• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment: The disc includes trailers for The Two Faces of January, White Bird in a Blizzard, Honeymoon and Life Itself, as well as promos for the Chideo web service and AXS TV. These also play at startup, where they can be skipped with the chapter forward button.



• BD-Live: As of this writing, attempting to access BD-Live gave the message "Check back for updates".

Frank Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Frank is well-crafted, and it's certainly unique, all of which may make it worth a rental. But I question how many people will want to revisit it. When you step back from the film, it looks less like a fairy tale and more like a bad trip. The Blu-ray's technical quality is beyond reproach, but the film is a downer. Caveat emptor.