There once was a musician called Frank Sidebottom. For those unfamiliar, Sidebottom was the comedic creation of Northerner Chris Sievey, whose identity was never revealed during his lifetime, since he always wore a big fibreglass head with a cartoon face painted on the front. Sidebottom appeared on TV shows, constantly toured, and had a seemingly endless supply of surreal pop songs and covers of tunes both famous (his indie medley is particular delight) and obscure (ditto for the TV sci-fi theme tunes). Journalist Jon Ronson's time as part of his band partially inspired Frank, a surprisingly affecting indie comedy/drama about the perils of the music business. Or, more accurately, the perils of being an "outsider artist". Frank has plenty of fun with Domnhall Gleeson's starry eyed young musician being recruited to the enigmatic Frank's bizarre experimental band, who go off to record for a year in a log cabin and engage in intense exercise routines, with the first hour or so pumped for off-beat laughs, especially from Michael Fassbender as the man beneath the big head. The film slowly morphs into something else, however, an exploration of how artists like Daniel Johnston (or the "meltdowns" of pop stars like Britney Spears) say a lot about the way mental health issues are treated when it comes to musicians.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
