This weekend, I was lucky enough to catch a free screening of the new Michael Fassbender film, “Frank.” Judging by the trailers, I thought “Frank” was going to be an enjoyable, if trite, film that wore its quirkiness on its sleeve.
At first glance, the film seemed like it was aiming to showcase the creative process of a strange and unstable band. I thought it was going to ask the audience to laugh at the lack of reasonable behavior on display by the band members, but to my surprise, the film actually ended up showing a much deeper and tragic side of the band.
The film opens with Don (Domhall Gleeson) trying desperately to compose a song while walking around his quaint hometown. He futilely posts to social media sites, unnecessarily documenting every moment of his life for a group of 16 or so followers to read.
Things change for Don when he witnesses the band, SORONPRFBS, trying to stop their keyboardist from drowning himself in a river. Don is then invited by the enigmatic Frank (Fassbender) to join the band and replace their keyboardist, much to the chagrin of the band’s theremin player Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal).
After playing one miserable live show, Don becomes so desperate to have his music liked by people that he makes the utterly irrational decision to move in with the band and live with them in the middle of the woods. This moment in the film provides a strange dichotomy in which the film begins to grow darker while also growing seemingly more whimsical.
The cracks in the characters’ psyches begin to show, making for some amusing imagery but also revealing a much darker subtext to the film. Don begins to document, and in certain cases exploit, the quirks and eccentricities of the band members, slowly unraveling the camaraderie that used to exist between the band members.
However, the film doesn’t explicitly show how damaging it is to the mentally ill or impaired for people to romanticize their problems. There are multiple times in the film that Don wishes that he had a traumatic childhood or a mental impairment so that he could compose better music. Too often will I come across a film centered around a disabled or traumatized character that romanticizes the impairment to a point where it becomes desirable to the audience.
In reality, as this film hints at, making a showcase out of someone like Frank is inviting the internet to scrutinize their entire livelihood. The fallout of Don’s grabs at fame is truly felt during the third act of the film, and the film takes on a decidedly and fittingly more somber tone. The characters’ quirks are still present, but the audience isn’t invited to laugh at them any longer.
Once the curtain is pulled back on these characters, it becomes clear that these people don’t exist simply to be a one-dimensional cutout for people to laugh at. These characters are more than just vessels to deliver a universal truth to the main “normal” character, and the fact that the film is aware of these expectations makes it all the more satisfying to see Don become disillusioned with Frank. As Don slowly realizes that Frank is not someone he should necessarily look up to, the film becomes a fantastic character study of someone who unhealthily idolizes a person simply because they have a talent that he doesn’t.
By the end of the film, it is clear to both Don and the audience that looking at only one aspect of someone’s life is simply another form of objectification. Idolizing someone’s weirdness or envying someone’s mental trauma is juvenile, and “Frank” does a great job at luring the audience in with humor before revealing how a person, a true character, is more than just the quirks that make them different.
To the band, unlike to Don, the creative process is a painful method of self-expression, not a means of creating a likeable song for fame and profit. “Frank” is a surprising deconstruction of modern-age idolization, and I hope to see more films like it in the future.