November 24, 2014 -- This movie has a story so strange you could not make it up. Well, it is made up partly, but it is also based on real life. It is about a band playing experimental music, led by a man wearing a very large, fake head, fashioned like a helmet. It looks like a kind of clown's head. He never takes it off. Yes, he is not exactly what you'd call normal, in a mental health sense. Other members of the band are also unhinged.

The film is dedicated to Christopher Mark Sievey, and his comic persona Frank Sidebottom (basically, a musician with a huge, fake head). Mark, who died in 2010, fronted several bands, including the Freshies. The film Frank is loosely based on Sievey's life. The film's main character is Jon (played by Domhnall Gleeson of “About Time”) an aspiring musician living in a small Irish coastal community (this is an Irish film but it doesn't seem like it).

One day Jon sees a man trying to drown himself in the ocean. It turns out to be the keyboard player for a band playing in town that night. Jon mentions that he plays keyboards, and, after playing with the band that evening, is invited to join the band, for what he thinks is a weekend gig. Instead, he is taken to a remote house where the band plans to record an album.

The band, led by Frank (played by Michael Fassbender of “X-Men: Days of Future Past”) plays very offbeat experimental music, typified by the stylings of Clara, the band's Theremin player. Most people who play in modern bands have never even heard of a Theremin (the inventor of which is actually the subject of a fascinating documentary film, “Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey”) a early type of electronic music synthesizer played with hand motions in the air.

Frank likes Jon, but most of the other band members, especially Clara, don't like him at all, including Baraque (François Civil of “As Above, So Below”) and the drummer, Nana (Carla Azar of “Sucker Punch”). Only Don (Scoot McNairy of “Argo”) seems even a little bit friendly to him. Jon is excited about being in the band and playing on the album. He dedicates himself to the music, even though he gets no respect from his fellow musicians.

Jon is the only “normal” member of the band, but he does fall under the spell of Frank and the others. He tries hard to fit in, but his notion of what makes a good song clearly doesn't match the musical taste of the rest of the band, which is extremely offbeat. Jon is very active on social media, and posts videos on YouTube, which gets the band noticed, and a gig at the famed South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival.

The band travels to Austin, Texas to perform at SXSW, but the trip turns into a disaster and the band breaks up, but later it gets back together, sort of. We finally get to see Frank's real head. There is an attempted suicide and a successful suicide, followed by a kind of Viking funeral. There are fights, arguments, hot tub sex and even some discussions about music in this oddball comedy.

I resisted giving this film a positive review, but I guess I will. A film ought to have something more to recommend it than a high degree of strangeness, but being strange is what this film is all about. In the end, this unusual band is a kind of family and they do love each other, and that love is hard to resist. Resistance to this film's goofy charm is futile. This film rates a B.

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