#gylenhaal

[tornadoauction]

best actor working today 

[filmtagebucher]

#26 Frank (2014)

“What goes on inside that head... inside that head?”

Es una obra de arte que es entretenida, graciosa, brillante,  original, extraña y difícil de describir. Dirigida por el irlandés Lenny Abrahamson, rey de los festivales independientes con más largometrajes como Room y Garage y quién supo sacarle a los actores todas las estrellas que se merece esta película. 

La historia te sube en el bus de la banda de genero indefinido Soronprfbs (¿So-ron-per-fibs?) y te llevan en un viaje realmente loco, irracional y sin punto de retorno. Eso es exactamente lo que hace un tecladista amateur de un pueblillo inglés a las orillas del mar llamado Jon Borroughs (Domhnall Gleeson) . Jon es un tecladista que sueña con ser compositor. Pero en la vida real tiene una rutina aburrida y tuitea más sobre componer canciones que de hecho componerlas ya que el contenido de su vida es monótono. 

Los Soronprfbs necesitan cubrir al tecladista para un concierto ya que el tecladista anterior intentó suicidarse ahogándose en el mar y le dio hipotermia. Y ahí es cuando el manager, Don (Scoot McNairy) , le da la oportunidad a Jon. La banda esta liderada por Frank (Michael Fassbender) el enigmático frontman quién usa una máscara, que nunca se quita... nunca. Los demás miembros son Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal) sintetizadores (o algo) quien es volátil pero esencial , Baraq ( François Civil ) el guitarrista que no habla, Nana ( Carla Azar) la baterista-percusionista que vive en un mundo aparte y por supuesto Don quién era ex tecladista, manager de la banda y tiene fetiche con maniquíes. 

Dato curioso: La película esta basada en un libro del reportero Jon Ronson quién toco teclados para la banda “Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band ” en la cual Frank usaba una máscara y solamente el círculo cercano conocía su identidad. 

Les dejo un vídeo de la banda por aquí https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y48U3_ZIZ4. Supongo que cualquier parecido con la realidad no es coincidencia. 

Frank Sidebottom en el escenario con Jon Ronson.

Luego de un primer y fallido concierto Don llama a Frank para otro concierto que sería en Irlanda. El concierto resultó ser un retiro de la banda para componer y ahí es cuando conocemos más a fondo a los personajes y la lucha de Jon por ser aceptado en la banda y su deseo de ser un compositor famoso.

Jon documenta este retiro en las redes de Youtube y Twitter hasta que la banda se hace un pequeño fenómeno viral. Más por su ecléctico comportamiento y letras extrañas que por su música en sí. 

No es fácil colocar el film en alguna categoría ya que pasa por varias etapas y temas. La primera media hora es muy amena, la segunda es muy WTF y la última incluso un poco obscura. Los diálogos te hacen reír mientras sutilmente trata temas de salud mental y la falta de ella, trata de temas de arte y la lucha de los músicos por encontrar su esencia y hacer música original, los conflictos internos causados por el ego y las lecciones que tenemos que aprender.Te atrapa de inicio a fin. 

“Put your arms around me. Fiddly digits, itchy britches. I love you all.”

[balenciaga-is-the-new-black]

[jonz]

The Shoes - Time To Dance

Disclaimer: If the lyrics of Pumped Up Kicks offend you, then this is not a video you should watch.  Additionally, the audio from the video is quite different from the official song (http://soundcloud.com/the-shoes/05-time-to-dance-original).  The percussion and piano will get you moving.  Now on to my rambling….

Jake Gylenhaal just made my good list of actors and The Shoes just made my good list for bands.  I am easily terrified, so Donnie Darko crept me out as a kid and this video shares a similarly scary Gylenhaal.  Somehow (Maybe because I’m older) I was able to withstand this terrifying video.  Because I was not immediately put off by it, I got a chance to obsess over it and consider what artistic message it was meant to convey.  The video is immensely complex, so I’m sure I’ve missed some things and over interpreted others.  For example, the video messes around with time, jumping from the bearded Gylenhaal to the shaved and ghostly clean Gylenhaal and I have no idea why.  Nonetheless, the video is undeniably artsy from the strange image of Gylenhaal in full fencing gear to the contrast of red and white in the final scenes.  The main point I took from this video is how tormenting it can be to not fit in with a group and what that pain can produce. 

I’ll try to give a brief summary and analysis. The video begins with the backdrop of a party oriented song, but features a calm person sitting while watching two people dancing.  As the song builds, you begin to notice something is strange about the character that has their back to the camera.  He is watching two young lovers dancing, drinking, and having a good time a little to intently.  He does not fit in and hastily leaves.  When he returns in an all out fencing outfit, he is laughed at.  Gylenhaal responds to the couples’ laughter by killing them all and the viewer is immediately aware this is not the partying video they expected from a song titled Time To Dance.   We see the main character is a tormented Jake Gylenhaal.  Then the song starts.

Cue the 80’s montage of training and strutting to a sick, sick beat.  We bare witness as Gylenhaal’s apathetic expression turns to hatred and disgust.  Holy crap, he’s a serial hipster killer. 

After a few watches I have to reluctantly admit that I have become enthralled with the video to the point that I now find it brilliant.  Gylenhaal’s performance, the camera work, and the song create a sense of satisfaction and discomfort that makes me unhappy with the situation and myself as I watch it.  Yet, as much as I want to, I can’t look away.  I need to understand why he is doing this.  Why?

My answer would be this: when we don’t think we can fit in, when it seems impossible to understand or coexist with a person or group of people, we have to come up with a reason why it isn’t our fault.  Why is our hero not responsible for his inability to live in this fast pace bohemian lifestyle?  His answer is to label it unappealing and despicable.  If he can’t be a part of it and he is not the problem then there is something wrong with society.  Naturally, we try to fix that which we think is wrong.  Gylenhaal’s character turns to what he knows best: fencing.

Fencing was a great choice for the killer.  It is weird.  It gives him a strange persona.  Why? When the term “hipster” came about, the typical “hipster” was an outcast.  They were someone who was so eccentric that they could not help but stand out in terms of their behavior, fashion, and lifestyle.  However, Gylenhaal’s character finds himself in a world where there are so many seemingly identical people trying to live the hipster lifestyle that he is the one out of place.  He is the strange guy in a fencing outfit at a costume party that somehow makes a dude in a horse mask look normal.  Gylenhaal is an outcast among outcasts and he literally finds himself defeating the hipster culture. 

In the end, at the most terrifying of all the scenes, Gylenhaal’s character finds himself in what resembles a hell.  The room is filled with darkness, but pulsates with a blood red light.  There is a half-naked man and woman dancing violently.  They show no fear or interest in the now menacing Gylenhaal as he watches them from the corner.  However, our anti-hero doesn’t respond as we would expect.  A blinding strobe light begins to illuminate the room.  He starts to stab the wall as opposed to going after those that he now shares this hell with.  His head begins to nod and before we fully understand what is going on, he is dancing.  He has becomes one of them.  Now that he understands that which he once hated, he has found the outlet and the release was looking for.

The final shots are of our now relieved hero as he looks down with a sense of knowing.  He stands innocently in the pure snow and rests among seagulls pulsing with life.

“Hey brother get up check the wings Do what I do, it’s what I feel Up to the sun, It won’t be long And now it’s time for you to run Amen it’s time to dance Hey sister come on kick the world The world is yours, up to you girl It was so fun you feel so strong And now it’s time for you to burn Amen it’s time to dance T-I-M-E-T-O-D-A-N-C-E in the city”

[dontyou-careaboutme-anymore]

[white-n-pinkman]