Frank 2014

Wesley Morris, Grantland: Things go from cutesy to clever to grim, from the band's country shack to the road, and it takes too long to get everywhere. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: If Michael Fassbender wears a giant papier-mache head for most of a film, is he still mesmerizing? Happily, yes ... Read more

John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: "Frank" is a genuine original in a summer sea of sameness, and a darkly comedic manifesto against the cultural status quo. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: A faceless Michael Fassbender stars in this weird and wonderful musical comedy from director Lenny Abrahamson. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: What chutzpah it takes to hire one of the world's most recognizable movie stars and then render him completely unrecognizable. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "Frank" is a true original, a film that heads in one direction only to veer off in another, yet never loses sight of where it's going. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: "Frank" might be a less cute movie without the mask but it would probably be a better one. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The movie's hipness quotient far outweighs its laugh quotient, though there's really no limit to the amusement of seeing someone bump around blindly in an oversize head. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: A functioning, funny, weirdly touching fable of artistic angst and aspiration, a meditation on fame and its terrors and the metaphoric usefulness of masks and huge fake heads. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: There's a perseverance to "Frank" that's also uplifting, a true spirit of unity among the damaged. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: Both Llewyn [Davis] and Frank may embody the spirit of the difficult musician, but Frank...is a more empathetic and engaging character, making Frank, the movie, a more bleakly funny yet ultimately touching film. Read more

Kyle Anderson, Entertainment Weekly: With the soulful Gleeson and a sweetly menacing Fassbender (under a giant helmet-head) at its center, the movie never loses its acerbic edge or its oversize heart. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: Endearing enough to plaster a smile on any face hiding beneath its own ever-grinning facade. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Odd, offbeat, somehow endearing, the bleakly comic "Frank" has its own kind of charm as well as some pointed, poignant things to say about the mysterious nature of creativity, where it comes from and where it might all go. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: In small movements - the twitch of a hand, a wobble under a door frame, a beer and straw held uselessly by his painted mouth - Fassbender gives us glimpses of what Frank's isolating genius has cost him. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: "Frank" has a wry sense of humor, the ring of authenticity and glimmers of genuine wisdom. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The whole thing is in danger of becoming arch and quirky, yet Abrahamson steers the final act of his drama toward a sombre, unhappy rumination. Read more

Tomas Hachard, NPR: That Fassbender plays the role of the disguised rocker fits well with the movie's tone: putting one of the biggest actors in Hollywood behind a mask lends a further rebellious streak to an already sardonic film. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: It's not the sort of festival favorite that will change an industry, make hundreds of millions or earn Oscars. What it will do is charm viewers who appreciate rough gems. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It's not going anywhere terribly important and is in no hurry to get there, but "Frank" is an accumulation of memorably offbeat moments, like an album made up of B sides and lost demo tracks that you stumble across and can't stop replaying. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: The movie roots the mask in mental illness without scanting Frank's artistic playfulness and power. The result is that rarity, a genuine pop tragicomedy. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A delightful, oddball surprise. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: You're in for something funny, touching and vital. Director Lenny Abrahamson knows his way around eccentrics. Read more

Kristin Tillotson, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A quirky, utterly engaging film that manages to be amusing, dark, surprising and poignant without wasting a single one of its 95 minutes. Read more

John Semley, Globe and Mail: The Soronprfbs may be the best fake on-screen punk band since the Stains. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Bat-dung crazy, in a good way, Lenny Abrahamson's Frank is the story of a pop star who really lets his art go to his head. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: If you'll pardon the cleverness, Frank takes time to wrap your own cranium around, faults and all, and that's a wonderful thing. Read more

Scott Bowles, USA Today: Even if Frank is a little too smitten with its own quirkiness, the film's examination of what matters in music - fame, money, sanity? - works as a kind of Behind the Music peek at a band's struggle for identity and devotees. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: As playful as it is, Lenny Abrahamson's film is mostly a surprisingly earnest story about the compromises and conflicts of art, stardom, and mental illness. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Beneath those puppet-headed antics, and true to its title, Frank is improbably, disarmingly honest. Read more