Review: Frank (2014)

I was given a rare opportunity over the weekend recently. My husband said he wanted to watch a movie with me and order take-out, and I could pick any movie I wanted. Normally I can only coerce him with an Action/Crime/Thriller, but I was given free reign. Straight away I brought up my watch list and picked a movie I’d been wanting to see for a while, Frank (2014). Pizza was ordered, the movie was set up, and my husband asked me what the movie was about. Erm. I explained it to him in the terms that came to my head straight away. It went something like this:

So, Magneto wears a giant head on his head and calls himself Frank. He makes weird music with a band whose name I can’t pronounce. They need a new band member so General Hux joins them but he’s kind of terrible.

Safe to say, if it weren’t for the fact that the movie was already set up, I was going to have to put Taken on just to make up for this. Thankfully, all it took was Domhnall Gleeson tweeting about an epic cheese and ham toastie to bring my fiance back round again. Man, I could kill for a cheese and ham toastie right now… #nomnomnomnom.

The movie follows the band as they record their new album, and eventually find fame online thanks to Jon (Gleeson) tweeting updates, filming progress and uploading it to YouTube. They eventually get invited to play at SXSW, a huge creative event which excited me as I’ve actually been there! That excitement died a little when I realised they didn’t actually film at the festival, but it was still a cool moment.

It’s the band’s arrival at SXSW where the movie takes a sharp turn and we learn more about Frank (Michael Fassbender) and his struggle with mental illness. The second half is much darker, but it was quite a jarring turn around.

Frank is one of those movies where I’ve had to take a few days to even put my thoughts down in writing. It is, without a doubt, one of the weirdest movies I’ve ever seen, but I really enjoyed the dark humour aspect of it all. Frank’s ‘Most Likeable Song Ever’ and Jon’s moment with Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal) in the hot tub were some of the funniest movie moments ever, and I doubt I’ll forget about them. Actually, any moment where Frank voiced his facial expression was equally hilarious!

I appreciated the ending, and noticed that it almost ended the way it began with a certain scene that I’d have normally missed, but I don’t know how satisfied I am with the closing scene. It made me a little sad. That was short lived though, as the song ‘I Love You All’ was beautiful, and I’m playing it right now whilst I type this.

On reflection, I think I was mad at Frank for making me feel some feelings I wasn’t comfortable with, but now I’ve pondered it for a while, I can appreciate it for what it is. A quirky yet beautiful movie.

Jobs Vs Steve Jobs

Strangely enough even though Job and Steve Jobs came out months apart, I watched them both within the space of a week which actually worked really well and they focused on slightly different aspects of Steve Jobs life.  Firstly, I enjoyed both of these movies, I don’t mind a TV movie as long as its not too cheesy and this one certainly wasn’t that.  

Jobs, with Ashton Kutcher in the title role, starts from his days at Reed College (where he technically wasn’t a student at the time) and focuses more on his business in his parents garage, the Apple 1 development and the relationships he built there and up to the release of the ipod.  Steve Jobs, Michael Fassbender’s version, starts at the release of the Macintosh and ends on the launch date of the iMac.

Jobs delves into Steve’s behaviour within work situations and he aggressive nature towards employees, colleagues and particularly people he considers friends.  It really highlights he want for success and how no relationship or person will stand in his way, including his pregnant girlfriend who he swiftly ditches upon finding out she was pregnant.  The film appears to draw attention to the key points in Apple’s history, rather than Steve Jobs as a person.  It skims over his relationships with his ex-girlfriend, his daughter, Steve Wozniak for example instead choosing to follow the timeline and build up of Apple the company.

Steve Jobs however, does have more insight into Steve as a person, mostly due to the interactions between him and xxx (Kate Winslet), his long serving colleague.  Bringing this character in has opened up a whole new level to the film which Jobs lacks, what Steve Jobs was like behind closed doors.  This version is also structured really interestingly, with 3 parts all taking place at product launches the Macintosh in 1984, the NeXT computer in 1988 and and iMac 1998.  He comes across much more aggressive and egotistical in this one, which from what I have read is closer to the real Jobs but some of his real life colleagues have noted that he did become softer in later life and that wasn’t depicted in the film.  Strangely enough, this movie is only set in work environments and yet appears to cover more of Steve's personal life than the previous version.

Both films include Steve Wozniak as a key player in Jobs life and career, however both seem to skim over the ins and outs of what happened with him.  In Steve Jobs there is countless arguments over mentioning the Apple II team but no indication of what caused this rift between them in the first place.  Kutcher played a good role as the lead character but Michael Fassbender nailed it, I found myself completely engrossed and forgetting that it wasn’t really Jobs.

I’m not going to lie, having read this back its all a bit messy to read because I have just thrown my thoughts on paper and it could probably do with structuring more like an essay to compare the two BUT this is a blog not University so this is what you get!! :-)