Every week we’re bringing you recommendations for great movies or TV shows streaming on Netflix. This week’s selection is…
“Tank Girl” (1995) 7 out of 10 – Directed by Rachel Talalay; Based on a comic book of the same name written by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett; Starring Lori Petty, Ice-T, Naomi Watts, and Malcolm McDowell; Rated R.
“Tank Girl” tells the tale of a dystopian future wherein a comet hit the Earth and it hasn’t rained in eleven years, water is scarce and controlled by the corrupt corporation Water and Power. W&P is run by Kesslee (McDowell) who uses the water shortage to control the world population. He who controls the water controls the universe and all that.
The title character, played by Lori Petty, is a member of a rebellion in the Australian outback with a goal of breaking the hold of W&P on the water supply. Like a low-tech futuristic Robin Hood she steals from the sated to give to the parched.
Like most tyrants, Kesslee doesn’t appreciate the threat on his stranglehold and attacks their hideout killing several people in the process. Tank Girl as well as a young friend of hers are taken captive. Tank Girl is enslaved and tortured while her friend Sam is sold into slavery at a sex club called Liquid Silver.
While in captivity Kesslee takes a liking to Tank Girl because of her wit and attitude, though he makes no secret of his intent to break her. There Tank Girl meets Jet Girl (Watts) who has given up on regaining her previous life and desires nothing more than to keep under the radar and make as little trouble as possible.
Meanwhile the Rippers, genetically modified soldiers crafted from human and kangaroo DNA, wreak havoc on Water and Power. Tank Girl hatches a plan to escape enslavement, save Sam from Liquid Silver, and take down Water and Power. Despite overwhelming odds, with the help of Jet, Sam, and the Rippers she just may have a chance.
“Tank Girl” employs multiple mediums to tell the story including animation, comic book style stills, puppets, and animatronics. It’s not surprising that the film failed at the box office, it is immediately apparent that this movie wouldn’t appeal to a wide audience, however it hits enough key notes to have achieved a cult status. Most notably “Tank Girl” throws out the damsel in distress model, the character of Tank Girl never shows any signs of distress even when they would be justified and would easily stand toe to toe with any Han Solo for quick thinking and badassery.
She maintains a hardnosed and snarky demeanor toward Kesslee and manages to save not only herself, but her friends, and perhaps the rest of the world in the process. “Tank Girl” earns seven stars out of ten for strong female characters and interesting aesthetics, as well as for introducing a race of sentient kangaroos with a straight face.
Marvel’s first Netflix original series, ‘Daredevil,’ drops in just a little more than a month (April 10th). A brand-new, extended trailer hit the Interwebz earlier today. The newest of the new reveals a bunch of footage, Karen Page, Wilson Fisk and a tone that some are already dubbing ‘Ultra Grim’ & ‘Nolan-Y’.
Take a look for yourself
A couple of things here.
-The fact is that this show has to instantly, and completely distance itself from the Affleck movie, playground fights and campy one-liners. There will always be a subset within media criticism that bemoans any trace of dark-n-gritty in genre entertainment, but it seems like a very wise direction here, when the non-comics-reading public is most likely to associate this character with a famously ridiculous, haphazard attempt.
-This is a new, low-powered facet of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which means it has to sell the audience on the appeal of watching unpowered people duke it out over issues that would seem weirdly petty in any other MCU property. That’s a tricky thing to pull off. Do you really think it makes sense to introduce a light-hearted tone to what’s basically a crime show? If we’re starting from the beginning, and trying to get people who don’t know Daredevil to give a damn, of course you play up the angst and the drama. You can’t assume that a general viewership is going to have the luxury of decades of backstory and familiarity. Start with the Miller version (which I’d argue really isn’t much different from Batman, except insofar as he lacks gadgets and resources), make crime scary, and go from there.
That being said, Daredevil has always been in my top five.
Daredevil is a guy who refuses to give up — or even ask for help — regardless of how many lumps he’s taken is a huge part of the appeal. I’m fine with dark. I’m down with grim and grit. However, I also like it when superheroes can crack a smile on occasion. Fingers crossed, I hope they can balance it with some of the wit and humor Marvel has put into their tent pole films.
Right now Mark Waid is writing the character (in the comics that is), and I think it might be my favorite run of Daredevil yet. There’s still the elements of dark and grit. The character still gets beat up pretty badly. The people in his life still suffer for knowing him. However, all that darkness is mitigated by the fact that Daredevil occasionally gets to put a solid win up on the board. His friends and family are put in danger, but he’s able to save them. Or, sometimes they’re able to save themselves. THAT is what I love about ol’ Hornhead.
The joy of Daredevil is that he keeps getting back up.
The appeal of Daredevil, at least one take on his metaphorical resonance, is that life is sh!t. For some people, it never becomes easy. It never becomes Hollywood. It doesn’t reward the deserving. It is grueling, grinding, and, yes, gritty sh!t. Certainly for those struggling in big urban settings.
But you keep getting back up. You get in that ring. You take your lumps. And maybe, just maybe, you pull out a win, now and again. You find friends, you find support, you find love, you even find joy. Some people read comics or watch movies/shows to escape (and there still is escapism in the DD mythos). Sometimes, though, you like things which reinforce your own struggle, or validate the tougher times you’ve had (perhaps, some would say, the escapism is in the infusion of a victory into a victory-less life).
However, what I see in the trailer is the beginning of the mythos. That beginning, and the way it is positioned to people new to the Daredevil story, necessitates this darkness being in the trailer and (I would argue) most of its first season. I think the joy will come.
And when Daredevil proves to be a success (a HUGE boon to the brand)…who’s thinking a Netflix/Marvel re-telling of The Punisher? Because, I’d be so in.
Every week we’re bringing you recommendations for great movies or TV shows streaming on Netflix. This week’s selection is…
“RoboCop (2014)” 6 out of 10 – Directed by Jose Padilha; Written by Joshua Zetumer, Edward Neumeier, and Michael Miner; Starring Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Micheal Keaton, Abbie Cornish, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael Kenneth Williams, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jay Baruchel; Rated PG-13.
“RoboCop” is a modernized remake of the 1987 film of the same name. The movie centers around detective Alex Murphy who is the victim of an attempted murder when investigating police corruption within his own department.
Omnicorp, a robotics company helmed by Raymond Sellars (Keaton) is using their high-tech robots to police the streets of developing nations and sees an opportunity in Murphy’s tragedy to convince the American people to allow their robotic force to roam the streets here at home.
Dr. Dennett Norton (Oldman), a scientist working for Omnicorp, uses his formidable technology to rebuild Murphy, to make him better, faster, stronger, and save him from being blown to smithereens.
By the time Norton is done, Murphy is nothing more than a head with lungs and heart descending and encased in glass and a hand attached by a metal skeleton. The rest of his being is made up entirely of robotic replacement parts. While this scene provides one of the coolest moments in the film, it is at odds with previous hospital shots that showed Murphy mostly intact, aside from a missing hand, lower leg, and damage to one of his eyes. It begs the question, what happened between the hospital and the robotic awakening? It feels as though Murphy was stripped down to the bare essentials purely in order to provide a cool visual.
“RoboCop” also suffers from being over the top at times. A man improved by bleeding edge technology is cool enough; it doesn’t need to be enhanced with actions that seem unrealistic even for the apparent technology. POV shots of Murphy’s RoboCop provided another of the movie’s highlights, each time he calculated the geometry of his movements in advance and then executed them my heart skipped a beat.
As Murphy explores his new skin, Sellars and Omnicorp manipulate him to their ends threatening not only his wellbeing but that of the entire nation. With the help of Dr. Norton and his obvious badassness Murphy is able to take down the evil corporation and finally reunite with his family.
This movie has so much going for it but continued to miss the mark just slightly or get a little too big for its tin britches. Though most of its failings can be forgiven by virtue awesome robot battles and the who’s who list of pop culture favorites including Sam Jackson as America’s futuristic Rush Limbaugh, Gary Oldman who can never do any wrong, Michael Keaton playing the charming villain, Jackie Earle Haley playing the face-punchable villain, and Jay Baruchel playing the skinny loveable scamp who looks sixteen years old even with a beard. Not to mention Joel Kinnaman (The Killing) who plays the hardened street smart detective with ease.
I only wish that “RoboCop” had realized what it had in its hands and found its potential rather than relying on gimmicks and name recognition to carry it. Those two things can take you far and can make for worthwhile weekend Netflix viewing, but they do not a good movie make.
“RoboCop” earns six stars out of ten because are some excellent visuals and a couple good performances. It isn’t terrible, but it isn’t great. In the end, it’s just forgettable, and considering what they had in the way of acting and technological resources, that’s kind of sad.
Every week we’re bringing you recommendations for great movies or TV shows streaming on Netflix. This week’s selection is…
“Brain Games” (7 out of 10) – Hosted by Jason Silva; Narrated by Neil Patrick Harris; Presented by National Geographic.
“Brain Games” is considered reality television but leans more toward educational programming than scripted reality drama. Rather than following a cast of “real” people attempting to navigate the apparently difficult task of being decent human beings, each episode focuses on and attempts to expose one of the weaknesses in the way our brains work.
On average, the human brain makes up about 2% of overall body mass, or roughly three pounds, but that small percentage of your overall mass is responsible not only for regulating and controlling your body’s functions but also taking in all of the internal and external stimuli to create a picture of reality.
Due to the massive amounts of data it is required to process in real time, you brain takes short cuts based on previous experiences to create the consistent streaming story that is your life and experiences.
All things considered, your brain is incredibly impressive; it is a massive achievement in biological computing power unmatched by even our greatest technological efforts.
Using the fourth most advanced computer in the world, The K computer at the Riken research institute in Japan, containing 83,000 processors, researchers were able to mimic one second of one percent of a brains processing power, it took forty minutes.
But in some ways your brain is inferior to even antiquated technology because the world and challenges by which it evolved were and are very different from what synthetic computers have been developed to deal with. In short, it’s pretty easy to trick those feeble few pounds of gelatinous mush, and it happens all the time.
The first season, only three episodes long, focuses on the weaknesses in your memory, the suppression of details when focusing on a task, and optical illusions, all of which are examples of how your brain constantly rewrites your history in order to maintain a cohesive reality. What you see or experience is not necessarily what you get.
The world got a pretty big taste of this when a picture of a certain dress was posted to social media and went viral when viewers couldn’t agree on its color. This discrepancy in subjective experience occurs because vision doesn’t actually happen in your eyes, it happens in your mind. When you look at an image your brain has to make assumptions about what you’re seeing and plugs in data from previous experience to create a picture. The majority of people (over 70% by some estimates) perceive the dress as being in shadow, your brain knows that shadows make things appear darker than they actually are and corrects for it, this is why many people see the dress as white and gold. A smaller percentage see the image as being exposed to a light source, if your brain makes that assumption it color corrects in the opposite direction and you see it as blue and black. While most of us are tired of seeing, hearing, and talking about the dress, it is a perfect example of the subjective nature of your reality and the viral nature of it makes for a statistically significant sample size, which makes it work talking about at least for a little while.
Two examples from the first episode of “Brain Games” explain this phenomenon in easy to understand terms, though it doesn’t make them any less mind bending.
In the image on the left the orange square in the center of the front pane and the brown square in the center of the top pane are actually the exact same color, in the image on the right both sections of the monolith are the same shade of gray. Your brain is making assumptions about the shadows present in the images and color correcting accordingly. In both cases what your brain is telling you is objectively false. Below is the exact same image except that using the wonders of MS Paint I have removed the offending stimuli responsible for the cognitive glitch.
What makes the series so entertaining is how interactive it is, “Brain Games” doesn’t just point out the flaws in your mind’s algorithms, it forces you to acknowledge them by playing along with the program. A weekend binge session might leave you doubting everything you’ve ever known, but that won’t stop me from making the recommendation.
By bringing attention to the exposed exhaust ports of our brains, we can take precautions to prevent their exploitation before the whole stations gets blown to smithereens, or at the very least we can be aware of them and derive a little entertainment value out of our wildly inaccurate perceptions.
Today is a great day for cartoon nostalgia, first the word comes down that “DuckTales” is coming back on Disney XD and now Netflix has confirmed that a rebooted “Inspector Gadget” will hit their streaming service next month.
Unlike Disney and “DuckTales,” Netflix is able to get the new Gadget series up quickly by virtue of the fact that it already exists. Twenty-six episodes have been produced and already aired in Europe though Netflix has acquired the rights to debut the series in the United States. This also means that they’ve had opportunity to see the entire series prior to purchasing it which gives us some assurances as to its quality.
“Inspector Gadget” for the uninitiated, is like the Six Million Dollar Man, but if the economy crashed. He’s like if an Autobot had a baby with the dumbest person you know and that baby was somehow trusted with important information and secret missions. His complete incompetence is balanced only by the Batman utility built stored within his body and the invaluable assistance from his niece Penny and their dog Brain. You can read more about the series and watch an episode in a previous segment of Saturday Morning Cartoon!
The new series features the same characters we’ve all come to love, Gadget is there, Penny and Brain, Quimby, Claw, and M.A.D. Cat, but they’ve been given updated looks and technology to bring the show into modernity while still hearkening back to its roots.
“We think that kids are going to love the show,” said Erik Barmack, Netflix’s vice president of global independent content, “but it’s also going to get some co-viewing because there is a generation of parents who grew up on the original.”
I know that I’ll personally be checking it out when it hits Netflix next month, your mission is to do the same. This message will self-destruct in 30 seconds.
Every week we’re bringing you recommendations for great movies or TV shows streaming on Netflix. This week’s selection is…
“Chef” (6 out of 10) – Written by Jon Favreau; Directed by Jon Favreau; Starring Jon Favreau, John Leguizamo, Bobby Cannavale, Emjay Anthony, Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman, Sofia Vergara, and Oliver Platt; 114 minutes; Rated R.
“Chef” was another one of those movies that I scrolled past on Netflix a dozen times before watching. With each scroll my mind wore down a little more until finally, I gave in to the cumulative pressure and clicked play. This is usually how I come across some of the best stuff on Netflix, by subtle wearing down over time, it’s also how I find some of the worst stuff. “Scorpion King 4” is not worth your time, trust me.
“Chef” was written, produced, and directed by Jon Favreau who also stars as the central character Carl Casper, an aging chef who saw early success but has lost control of his menu along with his credibility.
When a renowned food blogger (Platt) comes to his establishment Casper is lambasted online resulting in one of the most cringeworthy reactions since the invention of the internet. A secondary theme of the movie is the awesome and terrifying power of the social media and the consequences that come along with it, especially for the uninitiated.
After a scathing review is posted online, chef Carl Casper takes to Twitter to confront the blogger in what he thinks is a private message but is actually a public tweet. What follows is Casper losing his job and being forced to go to his ex-wife’s ex-husband (Robert Downey Jr.) for help in getting a food truck started up.
In so doing Carl Casper once again becomes his own boss and regains his creative control over what he cooks. Joined by a former member of his staff and his son, they spend the summer travelling around selling Cuban sandwiches to people on the street. His son, a member of a youthful generation born into an interconnected world of technology, documents his father’s endeavor online garnering him a successful internet following that translates into real world success.
The movie hits a lot of the right notes, giving us a story of a man down on his luck who goes back to his roots and finds success again by centering in on what he loved about his job in the first place. More importantly he connects with his son who had previously taken a back seat to Casper’s career.
SPOILER ALERT AHEAD.
It goes a little over the rails at the end though, the movie would have been satisfying enough had Casper simply found happiness again and connected with his son. The final scene has Casper approached by the same blogger who crucified him online and sent his life into a spiral, only this time the blogger is elated and offers Casper his own restaurant where he will be in complete control. Casper also reunites with his ex-wife wrapping everything up in a fancy little bow. It all just feels too gratuitous and fake. Taking a risk is sometimes a good thing, especially if you’re back’s against the wall but I half expected a bird to land on his shoulder and the screen to fade to black while bright bold letters spell out “…and they lived happily ever after.”
Aside from the last ten minutes I really liked “Chef” if felt real, the protagonist was likeable despite being imperfect and kind of a crappy Dad. He’s redeemed through his fall from grace and it’s all ruined when he’s magically returned to it, but maybe those sandwiches really are that good.
Netflix is developing a live-action series based on “The Legend of Zelda” series of games. While I want this to be true and I want it to be good, there’s still lots of places where this could fly off the rails very easily.
So, strike one? The trustworthyness of the source. File this under “confirmed rumor” since The Wall Street Journal cites an unnamed sourced at Netflix, who reveals the show is “about an ordinary boy named Link who must rescue a princess named Zelda and save a fantasy world called Hyrule, said a person familiar with the matter. As it seeks writers to work on the show, Netflix is describing it as “Game of Thrones” for a family audience, this person said.”
Nintendo and Netflix both declined to comment for the story, and let’s remember that WSJ is owned by the same company that owns Fox News, the New York Post, the Sun, and dozens of other tabloids, so let’s not get our hopes up too much.
Strike two? Also in the vein of not getting our hopes up, Nintendo’s track record for adapting its games to film and tv is spotty at best. Who can forget the weekly Zelda cartoon show from the late 80’s? Our own Neverbot certainly can’t, and you can read his Saturday Morning Cartoon column all about it here.
Strike three?It’s really early in the process. They need writers. They need producers and crew. They need a single concept (which version of Hyrule?) They’ll need to get their Zelda lore straight. They’ll need a cast. Then they’ll likely do at least some test footage, if not a full-blown pilot episode. Then Netflix and Nintendo order a full series, and we’ll get it several months to a year later.
Ok, well, actually, that’s more of a check swing that makes some contact with the ball and it loops over into foul territory. So, this isn’t out, per se. But it’s not on base yet.
But here’s the most important reasons this should happen: because it would be awesome. Who doesn’t want an awesome sword, archery, magic adventure based in the expansive world of Hyrule?
If they’re smart, they’ll most closely tie this in to upcoming release of the new Zelda game for the Wii U, whose gameplay looks absolutely gorgeous!
I also don’t know what they’re looking at in terms of budget, but being able to pull off some cool sword-fighting techniques, archery work like we saw in that recent viral video, and all of Link’s cool items would be great.
In fact, one of the mainstays of the Zelda series is the basic progression based on items and technique mastery. You need bombs to reach this area, you need the iron boots and Zora tunic to reach the water temple, you need the raft and ladder to get to the next level, etc. This sort of linear progression lends itself well to episodic format.
In episode 1, Link could find a sword and shield, receiving basic training with it, then fights off a threat to his local village. Then in ep 2 he could find out about the princess or Ganon or both, and is off to investigate, gets a boomerang and hookshot and is able to scale the castle walls and distract the guards to get in, then meets the princess and receives an enchanted musical instrument. . . there’s lots of room here for this to be very Lord of the Rings meets Indiana Jones, as so much of Zelda is also about puzzle-solving, decoding the lore of various ancient temples.
It would also be great to see all of the various creatures of the Zelda universe, from allies like the Goron and Zora to enemies like octoroks, tektikes, moblins, stalfos. Unfortunately, that probably means a lot more lead time, as all of those would need to be either CG or puppets. But I really want to see them. And bosses like Gohma, or Gleeok, or (zomg!) Koloktos!
Also? Just imagine the score we’re going to get. Zelda music!
The only other thing I can think that would make this even better would be if Netflix can offer early access to this show only to Netflix subscribers using a Wii U or 3DS. It would be a nice nod to those of us playing the Zelda games.
I really want this to be true. And considering the project is so early in its life they’re looking for writers. . .well, I know some robots who would be available.
The new 3DS version of Majora’s Mask drops next week, and we should see the Wii U Zelda game later this year. Let’s hope a tv series isn’t too far behind.
Every week we’re bringing you recommendations for great movies or TV shows streaming on Netflix. This week’s selection is…
“Horns” (7 out of 10) – Based on the novel by Joe Hill; Screenplay written by Keith Bunin; Directed by Alexandre Aja; Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Juno Temple, Max Minghella, and Joe Anderson; 120 minutes; Rated R.
I knew next to nothing about this movie other than it starred Daniel Radcliffe and he plays a guy who sprouts horns from his head. I had also watched the below scene but it doesn’t really lend to the plot at all.
In fact, after watching it again, the scene doesn’t really do the movie justice. But the boy who lived with horns growing out of his head was all I needed to put me in the chair. It’s a shame it didn’t get a wider release and better advertising but Netflix saves the day, offering the film to the anyone willing to shell out eight bucks a month.
The movie is disorienting from the beginning with a spectacular shot that moves through the floor then slowly turns. It gave a real sense of vertigo and almost weightlessness, I found myself unconsciously tilting my head as we turned.Radcliffe’s performance as Ig Perrish is spectacular, it’s brooding and dark, he looks like he’s been hit with a sack of hammers while he almost consistently carries a bottle around. He carries the weight of a character torn by grief at the death of his lifelong girlfriend while defending himself from accusations of having killed her.
Those accusations are seemingly confirmed when horns sprout from his head one morning and continue to grow unabated. At first afraid of the horns (as anyone would be) he slowly reveals himself to people in his community who all seem to notice his horns, save for his lawyer, but not really care about them. The horns also seemingly bring the worst out of people within his proximity causing them to state and then act out the secrets they would usually hide.
This story mechanism allows for some pretty dark scenes to take place not only because Radcliffe’s character occasionally uses the ability to coerce people into harming or embarrassing themselves, but because of the things they say and do all on their own. A scene between Ig Perrish and his parents is particularly interesting for its implications.
In a sea of cinematic rehashes, “Horns” is a welcome change of pace.
Between the current day narrative of Perrish digging into the truth of his girlfriend’s death is interwoven the story of their relationship together. Through a series of flashbacks we see them when they’re younger, first meeting in church, falling in love, and then falling apart on the day of her death. Some reviews have called the film a jumble of themes, moving from thriller to comedy with horror fantasy throughout. While the statement may be technically true, I wouldn’t say it’s a bad thing. “Horns” balances those elements well, taking you by turns from laughing to disturbed to emotionally devastated. To me that’s the hallmark of a good story. If you can make me feel all of those feelings and at the same time weave a beautiful and interesting mythology then I’m satisfied as a viewer, or a reader, or listener, or whatever.
I can’t recommend the movie for kids or the faint of heart; this is certainly a departure from the children’s entertainment that made Radcliffe famous. The R rating is well deserved with strong language, nudity, and some relatively disturbing content, but f you’re not bothered by those things than I can’t recommend it enough. In a sea of cinematic rehashes, “Horns” is a welcome change of pace.
Daredevil, ol’ Hornhead, the Man Without Fear himself, is coming to Netflix on April 10, 2015 and Marvel was there this morning to unveil the first trailer.
For those unaware, Daredevil is a blind superhero who received both his blindness and superpowers in a freak accident as a child. By day, he’s a lawyer by the name of Matt Murdock, by night he stalks the streets of Hell’s Kitchen, making them safer for those who live there. In this series, he’s being played by Charlie Cox. His nemesis in the comics and on the show is the Kingpin of Crime, Wilson Fisk, played (and briefly glimpsed in the trailer) by Vincent D’Onofrio.
The trailer looks like a very solid adaptation, taking the themes of Catholicism that have been pervasive in the comics for many years and putting them front in center while highlighting his double life. And though we don’t see him in his trademark red costume, we do see him in his early black ninja costume which gives me hope that we’ll see some ninja warriors or assassins as bad guys.
The series premieres in its entirety on Netflix on April 10.
“Frank” (8.5 out of 10) – Directed by Leonard Abrahamson; Written by Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan; Based on “Oh Blimey” by Jon Ronson; Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Scoot McNairy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Michael Fassbender; Rated R.
Every year during Sundance I review the list of movies, not because I’m ever able to attend many, but to make a mental list of the things I want to seek out when they’re available later. One film that stuck out in last year’s listing was “Frank,” the tale of an experimental rock band whose front man wears an oversized paper mache head. So when Kill-tacular-tron told me it was streaming, it just had to be this week’s Netflix Pick.
Though Frank (Fassbender) is the titular character and center of the universe around which the other characters orbit, the story actually follows Jon Burroughs (Gleeson) an unhappy office worker and amateur keyboard player who stumbles into life as an aspiring musician.
At the start of the film Jon comes across a man attempting to drown himself while a scattering of people look on and rescuers do their best to prevent him from succeeding. As the man is taken to the ambulance Jon has a conversation with Don, an onlooker and associate of the attempted drowning victim. Don mentions that the man was the keyboardist for a band that he manages and they have a show that evening now sans keyboardist.
Jon mentions that he plays keyboard and is hired for the gig after assuring Don he is capable of playing C, F, and G. When he arrives he is introduced to the band who begrudgingly accept him, and Frank complete with giant paper head who is singularly excited to have Jon on board.
While the movie is based on actual events, the connection between the film’s narrative and the real story of Frank Sidebottom is tenuous at best. Jon Ronson, who co-wrote the film’s screenplay, really did play keyboard for Frank and his interview did consist of “Can you play C, F, and G?” and while it seems that the spirit of Frank Sidebottom has been preserved in the film, many of the events and the details of Frank’s life have been fictionalized and all of the music is original and recorded by the cast. Look at it as a romanticized retelling of true history, you know, like the rest of history.
After Jon’s gig with the perpetually unpronounceable Soronprfbs, he is invited on what he believes to be a weekend excursion with the band that is in actuality an indefinite recording session at a remote cabin. Despite friction between himself and Clara (Gyllenhaal), a brooding theremin player and borderline psychopath, and his being wholly underprepared and under talented, Jon uses his savings to finance the band’s existence for the next year while they recorded and worshiped at the feet of Frank.
The presence of the mask forces Frank to literally see the world through different eyes and the rest of the band, because of his innate musical ability and his eccentricities, treat him almost prophetically as best represented by a scene between Jon and Don.
“Sooner or later you’re going to get the feeling ‘Why can’t I be Frank?’ or ‘Maybe I can be Frank.’ But, Jon, there can only be one Frank. One.”
Don’s disappointment with his station in life as compared to Frank crystallizes in a later scene while Jon continues his efforts to make the band, and by extension himself, as popular as possible.
What struck me as most compelling when watching “Frank” was the way it put a magnifying glass over our love affair with mental illness. While efforts at education about mental illness have seemingly increased in recent years there’s no denying that we love it. I’m not talking about reality television, which is as pervasive as ever and succeeds almost entirely by putting horrible characters in front of us who we can judge from a distance, or that millions watched in awe at the destructive spirals of Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus. These are mostly modern incarnations of a long term behavior.
While Jon is blogging his experiences he types the words, “I’ve come to realize that this is my Bluff, Kansas. That here in Vetno I have found my abusive childhood, my mental hospital, that which pushes me to go to my furthest corners.” He’s referencing events that he believes to be behind Frank’s talent and that belief extends to the real world. Vincent van Gogh was perhaps the greatest painter of all time and his work cannot be divorced from his mental illness. Sylvia Plath, a celebrated poet, struggled with mental illness and lost. In fact, mental illness is so common in poets and artists that they named the effect after Plath. There appears to be some evidence of a correlation between artistic ability/ambition and mental illness the causes of which are still up for debate. But the idea has entered the human consciousness, we revere those who are tortured and turn their pain into something beautiful and in some cases, we court that situation for ourselves, to hell with the consequences.
The film explores all of these ideas and keeps you captivated along the way. The performances of the primary cast all hit the mark. Gyllanhaal exudes menace, Gleeson is well meaning but naïve, McNairy is loyal but broken, and Fassbender’s Frank is obviously tortured yet surprisingly enlightened.
At the end I was a little sad that Frank and the Soronprfbs don’t actually exist. Like I said, a story like this is attractive. There’s something gravitational about a broken mind that makes art, I’m not immune to it. So I was happy to see them perform on “The Colbert Report” if only to see what it would have been like.
So what do we do with this information now that we have it. How do we marry our desire to fight mental illness and our love of art. It seems clear that to remove mental anguish is to extinguish at least some of the fire that brings us so much joy. So what do we do? I don’t know, we make movies about it I guess.
