Frank (6/10): An exploration of the relationship between mental illness and artistic creativity

“I love your wall. Put your arms around me. Fiddly digits, itchy britches. I love you all.”

Lenny Abrahamsson directs this offbeat tragicomedy inspired by comedian Chris Sievey’s comedy character Frank Sidebottom. I had never heard of him, but this film isn’t actually a biopic because it only takes that concept of the character and applies it to a musician who always wears a mask around his head. It is a film that very subtly has a lot to say about the relationship between artistic creativity and mental illness among many other things. Frank is a film that I respect more than I actually enjoy considering I found the pacing a bit tedious at times and wasn’t engaged with the characters. I didn’t actually enjoy the music either, but of course it isn’t meant to be entertaining, but it would probably have a little fan base considering their creative approach towards music. I also found it way more clever than funny. I didn’t find myself laughing as much as I had hoped for. Frank is actually a short film running under 90 minutes and for about the first hour I wasn’t really into it, but the last 30 minutes did draw me in and by the end I even enjoyed Frank’s last song. From the  moment the band travels to the SXSW concert I finally began to engage with some of the characters. The film is offbeat and weird at times sort of like its central characters and it reminds us that there is a very thin line between artistic creativeness and madness. Most of the film takes place in a cabin in Ireland where the band is recording their next album over the course of an year. You get the sense that what they are doing isn’t just searching for inspiration. They actually are like of a support group in a way considering they are all mentally unstable (with the exception of Gleeson’s character who plays like the fish out of the water here). Frank is a very odd film, but creative nonetheless with some touching moments near the end.

It’s impossible not to talk about Michael Fassbender when reviewing this film. I truly believe he is one of the best actors living today, but having him wear a gigantic papier-mâché head covering his entire face could seriously restrain his performance. It didn’t because it is Fassbender who we are talking about and he can pull anything off. So without his facial expressions he was forced to use his voice and body language which he did perfectly. His posture and the way he uses his hands convey a lot of meaning. Even his voice was restrained by this gigantic head so he really did basically do it all with his body language. If there was anything that got me trough this film during the first hour it was his performance. The lead character of the film however is Jon Burroughs (played by Domhnall Gleeson) who runs into the eccentric band members at the right time and is offered a chance to play the keyboards for them. Jon has always wanted to write songs, but he doesn’t quite fit into this group of misfits. He is more interested in becoming famous than actually being creative and in a way begins to influence Frank and trying to make him sell out. The rest of the band members are played by Maggie Gyllenhaal (who is perhaps the oddest character of them all), Francois Civil, and Carla Azar. Scoot McNairy is sort of the manager of the band. Jon discovers early in the film that these are all troubled people and so he begins to develop a theory that artistic creativity comes from living traumatic experiences. So considering he has never been able to write a decent song, he believes it is necessary to go through some sort of trauma with the rest of the members in order to find his creative genius. With Frank however that concept is turned upside down and it reminds us that art isn’t a product of traumatic events. It is a way of healing and coping with them through music. The film can be absurd and strange at times but it does convey the message in a very subtle way which makes the ending all that much better. 

My Review: White House Down (6/10)

"My father is a very special man."

White House Down might suffer from a terrible plot and loud action scenes we've seen a million times before, but the leads have such great chemistry together that this movie was actually entertaining. I'm giving Roland Emmerich a passing grade for the first time since his 2000 film The Patriot. I've disliked pretty much every film he's made since (2012, The Day After Tomorrow, and 10,000 BC), but for the first time Emmerich barely redeems himself thanks to strong performances from Foxx and Tatum. This is the second film coming out this year about the White House being under siege where the president is taken hostage and one man has to save the day. Olympus Has Fallen starred Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart. The action sequences in that film might have been a little better than White House Down, but I didn't like that movie because it took itself too seriously despite the ridiculous plot. What Emmerich has going for him here is that he knows the film is silly and that everything is pretty much formulaic, but he has fun with the story. He lets these two lead roles play with cliches and simply entertain the audience with their over the top performances. In a way this film felt a lot like Independence Day and those 90 films I enjoyed so much. It's not a Die Hard film, but it does pretty much live up to films like Air Force One and has a little more fun with the familiar story. We know pretty much everything that's going to happen in this film; it is very predictable, but somehow it manages to have fun with everything and never tries to takes itself seriously. Tatum has such great comedic timing that he really steals the show here. This is a summer popcorn film that is loaded with entertaining and funny scenes, but has very little depth to it. Unfortunately the film is way too long and has a preposterous final act. Despite it all, I still enjoyed White House Down and had a decent time.

Former military, John Cale (Channing Tatum), works as a Capitol policeman but thanks to a contact he gets a job interview with the Secret Service for the President James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx). He doesn't get the job, but he takes advantage of his interview to take his young daughter Emily (Joey King) on a tour through the White House. She is a huge admirer of the President and is having her dream day, but all of a sudden the place is attacked by a group of heavily armed paramilitary men who take everyone hostage. The head of the president's security, Walker (James Wood), is behind the attack. John prevents Walker from taking him hostage and hides out with the President inside while finding a way to escape and at the same time rescue his daughter from the dangerous paramilitary group led by Stenz (Jason Clarke). Cale gets through with the Pentagon from the inside and is permanently in communication with Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who tries to guide him and the President to safety. Cale and the President will have to team up in order to disrupt Walker's destructive plan. Among the talented cast we have supporting works from Richard Jenkins, Nicolas Wright, and Peter Jacobson.

I don't blame those who didn't like White House Down because I can see why they hated it. The premise is really silly and the movie is way too long with a very ridiculous final act. I enjoyed the film mostly because the actors seemed to be taking their roles very lightly and having fun with the material given. Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx worked extremely well together and shared some very funny scenes. Their chemistry is what made this film worthwhile for me. The film isn't as good as Die Hard, but I thought it took a similar approach and that is what worked for Emmerich this time. Tatum is a bankable actor and has been on a role lately (21 Jump Street and Magic Mike). The film is worth watching for this alone, just don't go into this film expecting an intelligent action film.

My Review: Donnie Darko (5/10)

¨28 days... 6 hours... 42 minutes... 12 seconds. That... is when the world... will end.¨

Donnie Darko is Richard Kelly`s first feature film and considered by many to be by far his best work. This dark and mysterious movie has reached cult status among many film lovers thanks to its original and eerie premise. I on the other hand, just recently watched it and didn’t enjoy the movie all that much. This isn’t my first Kelly film, since I saw The Box a few years back and really hated that movie so I was hoping Donnie Darko would be a lot better. It was better thanks to the performance from Jake Gyllenhaal and the atmosphere set up by Kelly, but it still didn’t work for me and once again I was disappointed with the ending of the film. Richard Kelly also wrote the original screenplay for Donnie Darko and at times the movie seemed to be heading into very interesting territories, but it just never managed to stay that way and ended up drifting everywhere. Many things that happened didn’t make much sense for me, but that is the way science fiction films work, some love it while others hate it and consider the events taking place to be impossible. For a movie dealing with time travel and such I think Back to the Future is the one to be put on the pedestal. Too many elements in Donnie Darko are just pointless in my opinion, but those elements are perhaps why many people consider this film to be a masterpiece. Donnie Darko is a divisive movie which some will love and others hate. You will just have to watch it and make your own judgment.

In the beginning of the movie we are introduced to a young and troubled teen named Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) who wakes up in the middle of nowhere one morning and drives his bike home. Donnie lives with his parents Eddie (Holmes Osborne) and Rose (Mary McDonnell) and two sisters Elizabeth (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Samantha (Daveigh Chase). His family is worried about his behavior and he is sort of the outcast in class as well. He has therapy sessions with Dr. Lillian Thurman (Katharine Ross) and confesses to have an imaginary friend named Frank who is dressed up as a demon faced bunny. Frank has told Donnie that the world will end in 28 days and he also makes him commit a series of vandal acts. Dr. Thurman is afraid that Donnie is suffering from severe psychotic disorder. One morning a jet engine falls from the sky right into Donnie`s room, but Donnie was saved because he had slept walk to a golf course that night following Frank`s instructions. Donnie believes that Frank is some sort of messenger from the future and begins to ask question to his teachers in school about time travel. He also begins to date a new classmate named Gretchen (Jena Malone) who has also gone through a very dark past. As the apocalyptic date approaches, Donnie tries to find a way to change things.

This dark science fiction drama has a lot of missing pieces that the audience is forced to put together by using their imagination (unless you watch the director`s cut which is a lot more explanatory). The film doesn’t seem to follow similar premises from other movies, it is original and sometimes it feels like nothing really is happening that is connected with other events. That is the feeling I got with Donnie Darko, that it was a very disconnected film and hard to encapsulate at times. It`s as if the movie doesn’t know what it really wants to be. The characters aren`t really interesting either, the only true character that is given depth in this film is Donnie Darko and his behavior is really bizarre at times. Gyllenhaal`s performance was great, but that is the only thing I enjoyed about this movie. Kelly has had a difficult time trying to follow up his work from this film since his next two films have failed and not reached the same cult status as this movie did. Donnie Darko could have been a masterpiece if Kelly would have found a way to piece everything together at the end, but it left me with a sour taste.

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My Review: Crazy Heart (8/10)

¨Pick up your crazy heart and give it one more try…Whiskey has been a thorn on your side and it doesn`t forget the highway that calls for your heart inside. And this ain`t no place for the weary kind.¨

(8/10) Those lyrics are from The Weary Kind, the theme song of the film Crazy Heart, which was composed by T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham. The song has been nominated for the Oscars and in my opinion it has a good chance of winning. But who really has the biggest chance of taking an award for this movie is Jeff Bridges for his performance as a washed up country singer known as Bad Blake. Last year Mickey Rourke showed us some wrestling moves, and this year Bridges shows us some musical talent. If you`ve seen both these movies then you understand that comparisons between them can`t be ignored. In The Wrestler Mickey Rourke used to be a wrestling star who struggled with health issues and when his career seemed to be going downward he met a girl that changed his life, while in Crazy Heart Jeff Bridges`s character goes through a similar phase because he is at his lowest point of his career when his life is changed around after he meets a female journalist. The outcome is different this time but the memories from a nostalgic past are very similar in both cases. This is Scott Cooper`s first film as a director after having acted in Gods and Generals and Austin Powers. He also wrote the adaptation of Crazy Heart from Thomas Cobb´s novel of the same name.

Crazy Heart focuses on the life of Otis Blake, better known by his artistic name Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges), a washed up country music legend who now has to settle for small gigs in bars, and yes, even bowling alleys. The opening scene reminded me a lot of one of Bridges`s better known characters, the Dude from the Coen brothers film The Big Lebowski. He was also a heavy drinker and always hung out in bowling alleys, but this time his character is very different even though he is a heavy drinker as well. Blake has a serious problem with his drinking and shows up drunk in most of his shows. His career seems to be going downward along with his personal life due to all the smoke and alcohol he drowns himself into, until he meets a journalist named Jean (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal from The Dark Knight and Donnie Darko) with whom a nice relationship develops. Jean has a four year old boy named Buddy (Jack Nation) who seems to get along really well with Blake. Things begin to look better for Blake when he receives a call from his manager telling him if he wants to open for Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrel from In Bruges and Miami Vice), the country music star of the moment. Blake hesitates at first because Tommy used to be his touring partner and he taught him everything there was to know about the business. Now that Tommy is a big shot he doesn`t want to do a record with him so Blake has hard feelings toward him. Oddly enough when we meet Tommy we discover he is nothing like Blake described him and is actually very grateful for everything that Blake taught him. His record company won`t allow him to make a record with Blake, but he offers him to write music for him. Blake is still resentful and continues struggling with alcohol until one day he has a car accident which makes him stay at home for a while and off the road. The doctor tells him that if he continues on the same path he is not going to live much longer. Another interesting character in this film is Wayne (Robert Duvall who also was a producer of this movie) who is one of his better friends from back home. Jean and Wayne are pretty much the only people he has a relationship with, but can any of them help him recover from his problems or is it just too late to make a change?

I really enjoyed the soundtrack of this movie and it reminded me a lot of my days in Nashville. There are a lot of good country songs, many of which are performed really well by Jeff Bridges and Colin Farrel themselves. Along with Walk The Line and Almost Famous, it is one of the best films about the music industry. It also proves that it is never too late to make a change in your life no matter how bad you have messed it up. I really liked the story and the message, but what really makes this film standout is Bridges`s performance. He is just great and definitely deserves the Oscar for best performance this year. Gyllenhaal was also good although I don`t think she will win the award for best supporting actress. Colin Farrel and Robert Duvall have received less credit because they were outshined by those performances, but I think they were really good as well. This is a good movie, one that you cannot miss if you like country music. Even if you don`t like the music the story works and it is just worth your time for Bridges`s performance alone.