Oddball documentary about Frank Garcia, a 1980's one-hit wonder, his wife Cindy Brown, and their dysfunctional lives. Frank is an alcoholic layabout who can't let go of his glory days, spending his days and nights in his basement making music and drinking. Cindy spends her days complaining about her teeth and doing nothing about them, and also working to financially support Frank and his music dreams. The commonality between the two seems to be that neither of them are happy and both have big dreams, but neither seems interested in actually taking any steps out of their rut to change anything. They're both just all talk. Adding to the strangeness of this documentary, it was directed by their adult son who also lives at home. In many ways, this film reminded me of the documentary "American Movie" where it was also hard to discern at first whether the filmmakers were mocking the subjects or were trying to genuinely tell their story. "American Movie" was certainly not making fun of it's subjects, and I don't think this film was either, although there are certainly a lot of moments shown that are hilariously at the expense of Frank and Cindy. Like the best documentaries, this film does have a subtext about the pursuit of Sisyphean dreams and knowing when to let go of them, but I'm thinking this film was more just a colorful slice of life. Still, it's a pretty entertaining slice of life that more than kept my interest.
Review of Frank and Cindy
