Headbangers

Michael Fassbender stars in the title role of the dramedy Frank, out August 15—though you would hardly know it: His chiseled good looks are obscured throughout the entire film by a cartoonish papier-mâché head. But the gimmick has freed him up to give the sort of goofy, loose-limbed performance we’ve yet to see from the actor, best known for playing a sex addict (Shame), a slave owner (12 Years a Slave), and a starving IRA fighter (Hunger). Frank, directed by Lenny Abrahamson, tells the story of Jon (Domhnall Gleeson), a wannabe rocker who falls in with Fassbender’s aggressively unapproachable band, which includes the disdainful aesthete Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Believing that greater fame is in store, Jon takes the group to play South by Southwest, only to discover that he can’t turn them into rock gods by himself. For that, he has to rely on the man behind the mask.