my young male friends are excited about this one
the story of a man in a mask fronting a 5 piece band
it starts out with jon wandering the streets of his home town
song lyrics popping into his head as he observes normal life stuff
and then trying to convert to songs in his bedroom at the family home
kind of funny so far - the feeling of a light-hearted comedy coming up
cut to a beach scene where jon witnesses a suicide-by-drowning attempt
the victim a member of visiting band - soronprfbs - doing a gig in town
no keyboard player now - jon mentions he can - and so drafted for the gig
when he shows up he is confronted by frank wearing the full head mask
and more of a shock - the band is all about experimental avant-garde
not his scene at all but he ad-libs well and even surprises himself
1 song in however and tempers flare and show over for tonight
michael fassbender is frank up front as leader and vocalist
maggie gyllenhaal is clara - analogue machine noise-maker
female drummer and male guitarist complete the lineup
manager don convinces jon to join them on a trip to ireland
picks him up next day in the band van - frank is still in mask
they take up residence in a cottage near the coast up north
and to jon's surprise for an extended period to record an album
this is where most of the film is then based as tension ebbs and flows
frank permanently in his mask - he pushing the band to extremes musically
scenes of noise-gathering in and out with random objects and actions
in the meantime jon is twittering and you-tubing the band's progress
and ever more curious about what is going on behind the large mask
commits his grandfathers inheritance to fund the now year long stay
but even after that time still no recording - frank a perfectionist it seems
strange scenes of a indian like funeral pyre after manage don tops himself
then out of the blue an invitation to south by south west - thanks to youtube
seems their obscurity has paid off so off we go to texas for the big event
tensions surface again here and on their big night it's just frank and jon
frank gets full on stage fright in the first song so it's all over quickly
the band disperses and after an accident frank too disappears
the final part of the film jon searching and finding them all
frank now mask-less and revealed to be mentally impaired
a final jon-less song with the reformed band - square one
summary - well - nice concept but overall it's quite lame
particularly annoying was the patronising of their music
the old cliche of avant-garde music is by and for nutters
maggie gyllenhaal - what the hell was she there for?
oh yes - big name star needed to get bums on seats
not a musical bone in her body i reckon - bad casting
ditto re sxsw scenes - let's get some street cred in the film
but it is all very peripheral and very poorly staged - non event
i won't be recommending this film to anyone - go at your own risk
though a large audience tonight and plenty of laughter going on
particularly the young ladies next to me constantly giggling
not like the old fart next to them - well out of place - maybe...
