Frank (2014)
Ireland-Uk co-production
Running time 95 minutes
Stars Domhnall Gleeson as Jon
Maggie Gyllenhaal as Clara
Scoot McNairy as Don, the band’s manager
Michael Fassbender as Frank, the eccentric leader of the band who wears a large papier-mache head throughout the movie…
Directed by Lenny Abrahamson
Written by Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan

You’ll have to forgive me but when I first saw the poster and the start of the movie, I thought of the guy in the “Jack-in-the-box” commercials hustling hamburgers.
The head is similar to that worn by Frank Sidebottom, the 80’s comic character on whose life the film is based.
The imdb summary reads thus: “Jon, a young wannabe musician, discovers he’s bitten of more than he can chew when he joins an eccentric pop band led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank.” That’s about it…it’s basically a road movie.
The band’s name is “Soronprfbs”- try that on for size- there must be a story behind it.
While watching the opening titles and discovering that it was an Irish film, my warning lights went up…for me Irish films are always “edgy” and/or “quirky”…witness 1985’s “Cal” with Helen Mirren or Neil Jordan’s with the great Stephen Rea and Forest Whittaker.
To the source of the story: It is based on the character of Christopher Mark Sievey who was an English musician and comedian known for fronting the band “The Freshiies” in the late 1970’s and early 80’s. He assumed the persona of Frank Sidebottom from 1984. Jon Ronson,who co-scripted the movie, originally played in Frank’s band- he is Jon, the young keyboard player in the film. Finally , the casting of Michael Fassbender as Frank was a stroke of genius and it must have been a feat…he is a formidable actor. If you have any doubts I refer you to two of Steve McQueen’s films “Shame” and last year’s ’12 Years a Slave”. He has to give a remarkably physical performance as Frank because the the head both masks his face and muffles his voice through most of the film. It is a feat matched only by John Hurt portraying John Merrick in David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man”.
So–bottom line , I’m urging you to come out to Frank” in order to not see much of Michael Fassbender.
Cheers.

LINKS
imdb.com/title/tt1605717/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_(film)
www.rottentomatoes.com/m/frank_2014/
frank-film.com the official film site
and especially: http://www.theguardian.com/culture/frank-sidebottom for an article by Jon Ronson about Frank.