In their near never-ending quest for box office gold Hollywood studios (in this case we’re talking about an “indie” upstart), another stand-up comedian is plucked from the clubs (in this case it’s arenas and stadiums) and plunked in front of a motion picture camera. That was the case of vaudeville and nightclub stars back in the “golden age”, but the idea of fashioning a flick around a comic’s “schtick’ really took flight forty years ago with Steve Martin as The Jerk. He became an enduring movie star, much like Rodney Dangerfield and later Tim Allen. A more recent example would be Amy Schumer breaking through with Trainwreck, though her follow-up flicks have struggled at the multiplex. Now comes a (hope to be) quirky lil’ low budget flick that stars a comedian who has certainly “paid his dues” over the last 22 years, bouncing between TV shows and supporting film roles.
- 6/27/2019
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
“Being Frank” isn’t very amusing, which normally would be the most damning thing one might say about an ostensible comedy. But that really isn’t the worst thing about it. There is something ineffably creepy about this contrived and mirthless farce about a demanding family man whose rebellious son discovers his dad has secretly maintained a second family in a nearby town for some 18 years. It’s a premise that could have been played for heavy drama, or even as a horror movie. In this case, however, director Miranda Bailey and writer Glen Lakin strain mightily for laughs without much success, and wind up treating the son’s discovery of his father’s deception, and their subsequent efforts to sustain it, as a bonding experience for them.
Jim Gaffigan plays Frank, the bigamist dad, who exploits his position as CEO of his family-owned ketchup business to take frequent and lengthy “business trips” — to Japan,...
Jim Gaffigan plays Frank, the bigamist dad, who exploits his position as CEO of his family-owned ketchup business to take frequent and lengthy “business trips” — to Japan,...
- 6/13/2019
- by Joe Leydon
- Variety Film + TV
Miranda Bailey’s narrative directorial debut “Being Frank” is a comedy about male hypocrisy set in 1992 that dives into many intriguing ideas and issues and gives us a lot to consider. This is commendable — given that many commercial comedies give us nothing to consider at all — but there is a tug-of-war here between her attempt to explore her characters in a very serious way with a consistent emotional basis and the demands of the material as written by Glen Lakin, which is clearly meant to be played as farce most of the time, particularly towards the end.
The first moments of “Being Frank” show high school senior Philip (Logan Miller) doing a practice job interview with his father Frank (Jim Gaffigan), and the way the shots are composed makes us feel Frank’s bullying control over his son; the effect is oppressive and even alienating at first, but to a point.
The first moments of “Being Frank” show high school senior Philip (Logan Miller) doing a practice job interview with his father Frank (Jim Gaffigan), and the way the shots are composed makes us feel Frank’s bullying control over his son; the effect is oppressive and even alienating at first, but to a point.
- 6/13/2019
- by Dan Callahan
- The Wrap
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