{"id":11275,"date":"2025-03-05T23:34:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T04:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11275"},"modified":"2025-03-05T23:34:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T04:34:28","slug":"being-frank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/03\/05\/being-frank\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Frank"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Being Frank<\/strong> (2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Film Arcade\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 110 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA rating (thematic elements, language, drug references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Miranda Bailey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Glen Lakin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Craig Richey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Yaron Scharf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 28, 2019 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jim Gaffigan, Logan Miller, Samantha Mathis, Alex Karpovsky, Anna Gunn, Danielle Campbell, Isabelle Phillips, Emerson Tate Alexander, Daniel Rashid, Gage Polchlopek, Thomas Mulzac, Hayes McArthur, Michelle Hurd.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $67,343 (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can only imagine the meeting between Miranda Bailey and studio executives when she pitched Being Frank<\/strong>. It might have gone something like this.<\/p>\n

Executive A: \u201cOkay, give us the plot in 25 words or less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miranda: \u201cA father and son with a troubled relationship connect over bigamy, deceit and blackmail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Executive B: \u201cSounds intriguing. Tell us more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miranda: \u201cIt\u2019s a screwball comedy of sorts. The son\u2019s discovery of his dad\u2019s other life leads to all sorts of hilarious complications as Dad struggles to maintain the subterfuge he\u2019s kept going for nearly two decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Executive A: \u201cSubterfuge?\u201d<\/p>\n

Miranda: \u201cYes. Frank, that\u2019s the father\u2019s name, has two families. He shuttles back and forth between the two. He explains his absences as business trips to Japan. Neither family knows of the other\u2019s existence. His web of deceit begins to unravel when his teenage son Philip sees his father with another family.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so forth. End scene. I\u2019ll take it from here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jim Gaffigan stars as Frank, the type of person who only sees people\u2019s faults and shortcomings. He\u2019s not particularly nice to his family. He takes his wife Laura (Gunn, Breaking Bad) for granted. He all but ignores his preteen daughter Lib (Alexander). He\u2019s especially hard on Philip (Miller, Love, Simon), a high school senior who just wants to do the things normal teenagers do like go to the college of his choice. He\u2019s elated when he\u2019s accepted at NYU because it means he\u2019ll be finally be out from under his overbearing father\u2019s thumb. Naturally, Dad says no to this. It\u2019s yet another opportunity for him to crush the boy\u2019s spirit with a bunch of mean-spirited put-downs. Understandably angry, Philip decides to defy his parents and spend spring break partying with his best friend Lewis (Rashid) who\u2019s arranged for them to stay with his pothead uncle, Ross (Karpovsky, Girls). Little does he know he\u2019s in for the shock of his life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Dad\u2019s supposed to be on one of his business trips to Japan so it comes as a surprise when Philip spots him walking by the pool. He thinks he\u2019s there for him but that turns out not to be the case. Philip follows him to a house where he sees him with another family, his second family to be exact. If that isn\u2019t bad enough, he\u2019s hurt when he sees that Frank treats them better. He has a loving relationship with the other wife Bonnie (Mathis, Pump Up the Volume), a happy bohemian type who paints the same landscape over and over again changing only a single detail each time. He\u2019s proud of his other son Eddie (Polchlopek), a jock going to college on a football scholarship. He gives his teenage daughter Kelly (Phillips, To Dust) all the independence she wants. Philip decides to use the situation to his advantage by threatening to reveal the truth to all involved parties unless his father coughs up tuition money for NYU.<\/p>\n

\u00a0So where does the screwball comedy come into play? It all starts with Philip introducing himself as the son of Frank\u2019s fictional friend \u201cRichie\u201d, an unseen presence in both families\u2019 lives. Frank has no choice but to go along with the ruse only for things to grow more complicated as the scenario plays out. For instance, Kelly becomes attracted to Philip. He knows why they can\u2019t be together; she doesn\u2019t. Ross is dragged into the mess as well. Frank needs a \u201cRichie\u201d, he\u2019ll have to do. Predictably, there comes a time when both families are in the same place at the same time. All his years of running interference haven\u2019t prepared Frank for this scenario.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It bears mentioning that Being Frank<\/strong> is set in 1992, a smart phone-free era defined by grunge clothing and Clinton-Gore posters. While I\u2019m not particularly nostalgic for the 90s, I do have some nice memories of \u201992.<\/p>\n

\u00a0By definition, bigamists are NOT sympathetic characters. That\u2019s certainly true in Frank\u2019s case. I did not sympathize with him at all. The guy is a liar and a coward. He\u2019s arrogant and clueless. He refuses to admit he did anything wrong, not even when he\u2019s finally caught. He tries to explain it away by saying he didn\u2019t know what else to do. He just wanted to do right by both of his families. In short, Frank is a dick. I\u2019m not sure what this says for Being Frank<\/strong> but I wanted him to be exposed for the fraud that he is. Not only that, I hoped it wouldn\u2019t end with everybody forgiving him. There is no redemption for something like this. Frank is one of the most unlikable main characters (notice I don\u2019t refer to him as a \u201cprotagonist\u201d?) I\u2019ve seen in a comedy in a while. If that is the intended response to the character then Gaffigan does a great job.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Miller also goes a good job as Philip although I didn\u2019t quite buy his transformation from angry victim to accomplice. Why would he help the man who never once said a single word of encouragement to him? All he did was criticize and browbeat him. So Frank takes him fishing one time. Big deal! How does that make up for the years of emotional abuse? Miller makes the pain of paternal rejection tangible. Mathis is great as Wife #2; I love how free-spirited her character is. It makes her anger later in the picture all the more real. Gunn is similarly good as Wife #1, a realist who\u2019s known for some time that their marriage was over.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In general, I like Being Frank<\/strong>. It has some funny scenes. It has a few kooky supporting characters. Lewis has a big secret that comes out late in the pic. I won\u2019t say what it is but it makes sense. Karpovsky has some great moments as the druggie with a well of wisdom. The story it tells is engaging. For a first-time feature film director, Bailey does an admirable job. And why shouldn\u2019t she? She has a great track record as a producer with titles like The Squid and the Whale, Diary of a Teenage Girl and the criminally underrated Swiss Army Man to her credit. Being Frank<\/strong> may not be Oscar material or comedy gold but it\u2019s still quite good.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being Frank (2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Film Arcade\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 110 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA rating (thematic elements, language, drug references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Miranda Bailey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Glen Lakin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Craig Richey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Yaron Scharf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 28, 2019 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jim Gaffigan, Logan Miller, Samantha Mathis, Alex Karpovsky, Anna Gunn, Danielle Campbell, Isabelle Phillips, Emerson Tate Alexander, Daniel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Being-Frank-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11275"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11336,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11275\/revisions\/11336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}