Steve Sullivan

DVD review: Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story

This is a first class documentary about a minor popular culture icon who deserves to be remembered.

Watching the new documentary Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story, it makes sense that the titular performer behind cult entertainer Frank Sidebottom - a mainstay of the alternative comedy scene in the late 80s and early 90s- would choose a giant papier-mâché head for his alter ego: Sievey's anarchic brain was fizzing with so many ideas that his own head clearly had no hope of containing them. That's the never-quite-stated thesis of Steve Sullivan's wonderful trawl through the late artist's extensive career. Unlike the Michael Fassbender-starring Frank, which used Sidebottom as a jumping off-point for a funny, poignant, fictional exploration of the connection between artistic genius and mental illness, the new film isn't all that interested in rehashing that debate. Instead it constructs a portrait of someone who couldn't have lived an ordinary life if he'd tried. And he did try. He was married, had kids, worked factory jobs - but with access to the vast audio and video archives that Sievey kept of his tireless efforts to make it as a legitimate pop star, we get to see how a relentlessly creative mind can thrive, even in a place as seemingly banal as his hometown of Timperley. It's not always a flattering portrait. Nor is it glamorous. And yet it's precisely this unvarnished look at a way of life that continues to be mythologised and romanticised that gives the film added power.

Review - Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story

Steve Sullivan's engaging documentary explores the comic character and his creator.

Frank Sidebottom film gets world premiere next month

The Frank Sidebottom documentary Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story, will be released in UK cinemas later this year after its world premiere at next month's South By Southwest Film Festival in Texas, Chortle can reveal.