Being Frank!

Now I have an unlimited card, I have managed already to start using it properly - to see films that I might not have bothered with otherwise (and two films in about a week isn't bad, either). The first of these is 'Frank', which to be fair, I would have always been interested in; because it's a bit weird. To put that into context, me thinking something is a bit weird probably means most people wouldn't be able to take it. However, if you don't mind the odd bit of weirdness, then I definitely recommend it.

Without giving anything away, the film follows the course of a strange band working on what is presumably their first album, from the point of view of their newest recruit, Jon. I say strange, both because their music is, to say the least, unusual; and because most of the people in the band are too. And it's all based around the enigmatic Frank, who spends most of the film wearing a papier mache head.

Anyway, it made me think about weirdness and creativity; whether 'normal' is necessarily a good thing, or even a necessary thing. The people in the band didn't seem to be any more or less happy than the average (with possibly one exception), and they certainly produced music of some kind. It was certainly unusual, but not unlistenable - it just took a bit of getting used to, that's all. So, why be 'normal' when you can be happy as you are?

And then, there's the whole question of creativity. Do you have to be weird/abnormal/mad to be creative, or is it that people who are (very) creative see the world differently enough that they just seem mad to everyone else? The film doesn't really address this; except in Frank's case, where the two don't seem to be connected. As for the rest of them, who knows? Is this even a question that can be answered?

Go see the film for yourself, and see what you think? What I took away from it is that the world is a place where there is space for weirdness, and that weirdness can lead to a lot of laughter. Which is most definitely a good thing. Oh, and that I want to go to South By South West - or at least back to Austin.