I so wanted to like this film. Not only does it star one of my favorite actors; Michael Fassbender, but it has been getting a lot of good buzz on the Indie circuit, including Sundance. I have a particular fondness for Indie films, so I was excited to see this unique story about an Indie rock band fronted by a man named Frank. A man who never takes a mascot size head off whether on stage or not. As hard as I tried to like it, this dark comedy was neither amusing nor were the dramatic turns particularly affecting. This was a film that tried to impress itself with its’ eccentric ‘humor’ and tried to say something profound about mental illness, although I could never figure out what.
I will say, the film started off promising focusing on Jon (played by Irish up and comer Dohmnall Gleesan). A cubicle worker desperate to find an outlet for his creative expression, Jon one day stumbles across a small Indie band who has a sudden need for a keyboard player. Deciding to take a leap at his dream, he drops everything and agrees to tour with the band. Immediately meeting Frank, he is confused by this eccentric frontman, whom everyone worships as a creative genius, but no one can ever remember seeing him without his mascot head. I know this sounds weird and it is, but somehow, this part of the movie works. Once you settle in and realize that the head is on for the duration, you buy into the premise. I do applaud Fassbender as his ego is in check enough not to have his face shown throughout the film.
Jon senses trouble and disillusionment when the band sets up in a lake side cottage instead of going on tour. The manager says they must spend time laying down tracks and coming up with an album before they go on tour. It’s at this point I think the film loses it’s way. Being the only ‘normal’ one, Jon has trouble fitting in with the group. It’s only through Frank’s fascination with Jon that the group allows him to stay. Even so, I felt that Frank’s interest in Jon was more due the kitsch factor of his normality. From here, every scene seemed to be trying to have each band member’s quirks out do the others. I found none of them particularly engaging, especially Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Clara, who is threatened by Frank’s diverted attention to Jon.
Hints at mental illness among all the band members begin to emerge and instead of being humorous as the film intended, I found it more sad than anything else. As the months pass and supplies begin to run low, Jon feels he has had a creative epiphany from all his isolated suffering and goes into overdrive. Unfortunately, his work is mediocre and considered mundane by the rest of the band. Regardless, Jon soon sees Frank as the creative genius that everyone else sees him as and he uses his skill with social media to start lining up performances for the band. The most high profile is a music festival in Texas. Despite Clara’s concern that this type of thing could unbalance Frank, she is overruled and they are off to America to find their fame and fortune.
The film, having already gone wrong in my opinion, dives deeper down the wrong direction and soon all pretense of comedy is dropped and the film just become a series of psychotic episodes among the band members. We begin to question Jon’s own mental balance as his obsession with becoming a famous musician overcomes his own common sense. The cameras rests slowly and uncomfortably long on scenes of Frank’s despair with no real reason or epiphanies. We begin to learn Frank’s secrets, but instead of revealing they are just depressing and disappointing.
I’m not going to continue with criticizing this film as I admire independent films and their creative process. I’ll just say that I thought this one missed the mark and I have no idea what the critics are seeing in this. Sometimes I think critics will say they like things that they think are thoughtful and edgy just to appear to be thoughtful and edgy themselves. Michael Fassbender is still at the top of my list of modern actors and I enjoy he enjoys doing low profile and unique films, but I just couldn’t connect with this film.
I give this film * 1/2 star
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