Frank

As Domhnall Gleeson's character Jon asks in the film, how to describe Frank? Well, one way would be to say it's a laugh-riot. Another, that it looks at the concept of originality in a rather original way. And then the perils of forcing originality.

Jon is a young wannabe musician who gets roped into playing in a band because he can play a few notes on a keyboard. The band, "Soronprfbs", is led by Frank (Michael Fassbender), a strange man who wears a Frank Sidebottom head. After being whisked away to an Irish cabin resort to record an album with the band and soon they get a gig playing at the SXSW (South by Southwest) festival in Austin, Texas.

Director Lenny Abrahamson crafts a really original and clever, not to mention hilarious. The movie's main focus is that the character of Jon wants to attain a certain level of fame, as is evident with his obsession with social media (done in a very creative way, with every blog post and tweet projected onto the screen), and he believes he can attain this through Frank. All the while, he struggles with his own lack of creativity.

But I am almost leaving out one of the best parts of this movie; the performances. Domhnall Gleeson has been proving himself lately with excellent turns in films like About Time. Here he clings to the ideas of fame and originality like his life depends on it. Maggie Gyllenhaal also gives an outstanding performance as Clara, the band's theramin player. Clara is super aggressive and is reluctant to follow along with Jon's plans.

But the star attraction (for me, at least) was Michael Fassbender's performance. He spends ninety percent of the movie with the fibreglass head on, but is still able to give an emotive and evocative performance and unless you know it was him under the head you would be surprised to find it is him. Scoot McNairy (The Rover) is great in a supporting role.

At first I wasn't really a fan of the music that the band was producing (it is pretty avant-garde) but it kind of grew on my and now I'm a fan of Soronprfbs.

Verdict: A super funny and charming comedy about the ideas of originality. Great performances from Gleeson and Fassbender.

Classic Movie Review: Donnie Darko (2001)

Time travel, existentialism, destruction and fear are all explored in Richard Kelly's cult debut film. Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) is part of a typical suburban family, or so it would seem. He suffers from emotional disorders and the medication that he has to take results in him making imaginary friends. His latest friend is a man in a bunny suit called Frank. One night, Frank asks Donnie to follow him, so that he can share a secret with Donnie. Frank reveals that the world will end in 28 days, six hours, 42 minutes and twelve seconds.

At dawn, Donnie awakens on the local golf course and discovers that he has been sleepwalking. Returning home, Donnie discovers that an unidentified jet engine had crashed into his bedroom whilst he was away. At school, Donnie meets Gretchen Ross (Jena Malone), who has recently moved to town. The two soon begin a relationship.

Donnie starts to get visits from Frank, telling him to commit crimes, such as flooding the school and burning down author Liam Cunnigham's (Patrick Swayze) house. A basement containing child pornography is discovered by firefighters. This revelation brings much unrest to the small town of Middlesex. Donnie also starts seeing snakes of liquid coming out of the chests of everyone around him, which Frank explains is one aspect of time travel.

To find out more about time travel, Donnie goes to his school's physics teacher, Dr. Monnitoff (Noah Myle), who explains that time travel could be theoretically possible if an object traveling faster than the speed of light could enter a particular wormhole. He also gives Donnie a book on the subject, which Donnie discovers is written by a senile old lady who lives in an old house on top of the hill.

Donnie's younger sister (Daveigh Chase) makes it through to the quarter finals of a dance competition that will be held in LA. Their coach is unable to make it, as she is at Cunningham's arraignment, and she asks Donnie's parents to go to LA. They leave Donnie and his sister Elizabeth (Maggie Gyllenhaal) alone for the weekend. Elizabeth throws a Halloween party, that is also in celebration of her entry into Harvard.

Gretchen shows up to the party, distressed because her mother has gone missing. She and Donnie go for a drive up to where the old lady on the hill lives and are attacked by the school bullies (Alex Greenwald and Seth Rogen). They see a car coming and one of them runs away, leaving Gretchen to get hit by the car. Once the other bully runs away, Donnie shoots the driver of the car, whose name is Frank and is wearing a bunny suit. He gets Gretchen in the car and drives into the hills. Over his house a swirling cloud formation is formed.

Meanwhile, the plane that is carrying Donnie's parents and sister home from LA hits some turbulence and detaches one of the engines, which goes down through the cloud formation. This causes time to go backward to the beginning of the film and instead of Donnie leaving the house to follow Frank, he is crushed by the engine, thus ending his world.

Back in 2001, this movie made quite a stir because of the whole plane crash thing, which severely impacted on the fact that not a lot of people saw this film, which is a shame. They missed out on seeing a deep and meaningful film.

Jake Gyllenhaal is fantastic as the haunted Darko. His character is dealing with regular teen troubles as well as these haunting visions. Other great performances come from Jena Malone as the troubled Gretchen and Maggie Gyllenhaal as the excitable Elizabeth. Drew Barrymore also makes a great appearance as Darko's English teacher.

The music in this film is superb mix of Michael Andrews' chilling score and rock and pop hits from the late 80s, including Joy Divsion and Duran Duran.

Verdict: Richard Kelly has created a haunting world and made a perfectly flawed character in Darko. He has made a simple theory behind time travel, whilst the actual mechanics behind it are still complex. Gyllenhaal brings his A-game.