Frank
Dir: Richard Heslop
2012
*****
Blimey, where do I start with Frank? Well I went to go see Frank at the 2012 Raindance festival in London. A good mate of mine who sadly passed away did the soundtrack (House of Fix) so I went to see this film just to hear his voice again. I knew nothing about the film before going but that was probably a good thing. I have huge niggles with the film, the generalisation of mental illness is very unfortunate and as much as I love the character of Fidel (played by the brilliant Con O'Neill) I can't help but think he should have been a more mysterious character, in the dark and 'in the other room' as it were. It's hard to say much about this film without ruining the story but all I will say is that it is one of the strangest, most unpredictable, most shocking (in places) and touching films I've ever seen. It is also so beautifully shot and has probably one of the most stunning intro scenes ever (they got their hands on a very flash camera, only 6 in the world and the other 5 were being used to film Hugo at the time). It doesn't really fit into a genre but that's a good thing. Unfortunately for the time being it doesn't have a distributor either but hopefully in time it will. After the film there was a Q&A session with the three main stars, producer and director and one of the actors quite bluntly said that he doubted it would get a release because quite frankly no one in the film industry has any balls anymore. I think he's right. They made the film on a mere £12,000 but you wouldn't have known by watching it, credit due to talented film making there. Still, on the chance this film does come your way I highly recommend to see it, I really want someone to talk to about it! The soundtrack is also awesome, it was lovely to hear my old friend's voice booming out of the cinema speakers, you made it into the movies Kit my old buddy, I hope you saw it from your little cloud up there.