The concept for Frank is utterly absurd. Jon is a struggling songwriter plucked from obscurity to join an eccentric pop band who’s mysterious frontman ‘Frank’ permanently wears an oversized papier-mâché head.
Frank is an amazing and truly original film that manages to be continually hilarious as well as truly beautiful and immensely touching at times. Brilliantly written and superbly acted, if you can find it in cinemas still, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
4/5
Louis Bloom is an utterly deplorable character that you should absolutely not be rooting for in Nightcrawler… and yet I found myself willing this creepy character to succeed, trying to make his way in the world. Gyllenhaal is superb as Bloom, surely a shoe-in for a Best Actor nomination at the very least. We’ve seen actors lose weight for roles before but Gyllenhaal’s weight-loss adds an intensity to this character. I don’t think i’ve seen anything creepier than the way Bloom’s eyes light up while he’s filming a crime scene.
Morally the film reminded me of things like Network and Newsroom which take a look at the absurd nature TV News being a ‘show’ that is subject ratings wars and subsequently advertising. A fascinating subject and one that Nightcrawler superbly dramatises and makes even more absurd by covering it from the point of view of the people out there collecting the material to sell to the news channels.
Brilliantly shot, directed and acted. Can’t wait to see this one again. 5/5