18 days to go: Frank (March, 21)

What an odd and sweet movie.

On this day, I had a strong need for something meaningful, for a story about people and their struggle in life. Something that would remember me that we're alive and kicking, trying hard to make sense of our lives. Or even simply trying to stay alive. Frank was an perfect answer.

It is a fairly curious little film, starting for its production. Lenny Abrahamson (who, one year after Frank, would be gifting the world with the amazing Room) directs in a very experimental way some great actors as Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson (in frankly Ascension), Maggie Gyllenhaal in a story that is not easy peasy. Initially, it is funny, ironic, and we follow Gleeson's Don in his search for artistic creativity and fame. He thinks that he has found it in Frank's band, but he really understand where he is until later. Not for nothing he is pegged as an outsider. 

Ok, now I have to tell you that there will be a bit of a spoiler ahead. It is nothing that compromise the experience of this movie, we see this trait in one of the characters since the beginning... but I'm giving you, as always, the choice of meeting this film without any spoilers...

This Alex Murdock's song has nothing to do with the

movie per se, but...

Frank moves beautifully and with care in the direction of discussing difficult matters in life. One of them is mental illness. There's a thing about it that is very difficult to understand from the outside, unless you've been dedicating yourself in a careful exercise of empathy. However how advanced are the studies and despite all the information disclosed daily, there's a perverse judgment towards mental ill people, as it was their choice to be sick or not. And there's a way of looking at life that is very particular - I always remember Bradley Cooper's character in Silver Linings Playbook saying that there's something only he and his friends pegged as crazy could understand. Thanks for the movies that put us in the place of experiencing theses views in order to judge no more. 

This way, of course there weirdness in the movie, and it is cleverly applied. The songs are great, and the whole experience of shooting it must have been amazing. Simply outstanding - all the songs are played by the cast while filming. Scotland and Ireland and Texas ("This looks like Paris, Texas" became one of my favorite quotes instantaneously) are stunning backgrounds for the story of kindred souls looking for their place in life through art and relations. The best way to find out what the f* we're doing it, I think.

Thank you, movies; thank you, amazing cinema, for always being there when I need you.

Fassbender being dwarfed by a truly big head :)

Frank. Directed by Lenny Abramhanson. Cast: Michael Fassbender, Domhnall
Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal. Writers: Jon Ronson, Peter Straughan, based on
the paper article by Jon Ronson.UK/Ireland/USA, 2014, Dolby Digital, Color, 95 min.

PS: Paris, Texas, directed by Wim Wenders in 1984, is one of my favorites movies in life. It is a masterpiece, actually, so mesmerazing. And the Ry Cooder score is something from another world. I should revisit it soon  - it has been a long time since I saw it for the last time.