Frank
Like Maps to the stars this probably ranks as one of the best films of 2014 that I didn't see until 2015.
Frank is about a young aspiring musician who through chance runs into a band as their keyboard player is attempting to commit suicide. He volunteers to take keyboard and gets in to the production on the bands next album.
Spoiler alert!!!
Its really difficult to talk about why I enjoyed Frank without spoiling it so here goes...
Firstly there's a scene near the end of the film where the protagonist confronts Franks parents. He asks what happened to make Frank don the mask and they tell him that there was no major event that caused it, he's just mentally ill. Also that there was no Great influence on his music from the illness and if anything it hindered his potential. The protagonist wants there to be some identifiable underlying influence and inspiration behind Franks music and this isn't it. It's refreshingly distant from the typical bullshit portrayals of mental illness we get in Hollywood films.
Secondly, our main character is actually a Toxic influence on the band. The ongoing suggestion is that the film is going to follow the typical rags to riches musical odyssey I've seen a dozen or so times before and it does not do this. He does not see the inner hidden potential in the band rather destroys it through arrogance and self delusion.
Thirdly Michael Fassbender is bloody marvellous as Frank. Especially by the third act he's already sold the character in spite of the bloody great Frank Sidebottom mask. A great achievement.
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