..it's not a box-office 'must-see' by any stretch.. but being a fan of both Imogen Poots, and Michael Nyqvist, it pretty much was an easy choice... she's one of those individuals that a decade will add little age to her appearance.. at 27, she has been acting for the past thirteen years, and she'll have a very long career should she so choose.. the story is nothing new, but all the leads, and the entire ensemble for that matter, are well cast, and their portrayals are true.. and there are a couple of scenes where you see just how good at their craft they all are.. it's not one that 'must-be'.. but it can be viewed again with some measure of pleasure

Neither a romance or a thriller, "Frank & Lola" would appear to be another tawdry film on the order of "Fifty Shades of Grey." A skilled chef (Frank) meets an aspiring fashion designer (Lola), and they immediately have sex. While there appears to be chemistry between the two people, it turns out that Lola immediately has sex with a stranger, leading to the couple's first major argument, then a long string of separations.At that moment when the woman was unfaithful, the relationship should have ended. Instead, the film introduces a bizarre subplot with a former lover of Lola in Paris. The film then turns into an implausible psychological drama that was both confusing and a complete bore.The most interesting scenes in the film related to career of Frank as a chef in swanky hotel restaurants. It was clear that he was a gifted and imaginative chef with special talents. Additionally, the fine actor Michael Shannon was completely convincing in the role.Sadly, the film did not engage as a love story. It appeared as though the filmmakers were attempting to create the philosophical profundity of a European art film. But the result was a spin-off of "Fifty Shades of Grey."

"Frank and Lola" is a an independent romance drama thriller directed by Matthew Ross, and starring Michael Shannon (Frank), Imogen Poots (Lola), and Justin Long (Keith). The film follows the characters of Frank and Lola. Frank is an uptight chef who takes pride in his cooking and the culinary arts, and Lola is a young eccentric woman who makes dress designs. The film starts with the two in their relationship and as the film goes on explains how the two actually met. One night Lola comes home crying telling Frank that she "made a mistake." This is where the film takes a dark turn and gives us an eerily disturbing look at what a dysfunctional relationship can be like.Right off the bat the acting is great. Shannon was perfect as the character of Frank, this obsessed, uptight and disturbing individual. Shannon was on fire in 2016 with "Midnight Special", "Elvis & Nixon", and "Nocturnal Animals", and this film just shows how much of a great actor he really is. Poots was great as Lola, her performance really sold the role and was done very well. Justin Long was good in the movie too as this obnoxious, wealthy, charismatic douche. The cinematography in the film was beautiful. In a way the film looked very much like a Nicolas Winding Refn film (specifically "Only God Forgives" and "The Neon Demon") There was a lot of bright reds, yellows, and blues, it was gorgeous to look at and never took me out of the film.Matthew Ross proves to be a very stylized director with great vision and execution. He makes time to develop every character in the film no matter how big or small their role was, and justifies the characters actions.A few issues I had was the relationship between the two characters of Frank and Lola. Their relationship is never really explored on why they "love" each other so much and how they're still able to be together when all these awful things start happening to them. Another issue is that the film gets a little repetitive during the halfway mark which made me question the believability of "that" happening twice.Overall "Frank and Lola" is a well executed film with great performances by Michael Shannon and Imogen Poots, and a great directorial debut for Matthew Ross.

The way the director of this film described this movie is that it's a noir psycho sexual thriller. And that is basically what this is, there is a lot of passion, lust and the distance love can drive a person. But what really got to me is how it brought in sincerity when it comes to love mixed in with thrilling elements. Because the cinematography brings about quite a bit of tension during certain scenes. Not bad for a director that didn't have much mainstream success when it comes to his films. Even this project took quite a bit of convincing to get the green light. This isn't a film that has a lot of technical merits but it really does come off as a personal film. It's a film that mixes in parts when it comes to the director's experiences and his emulations of films he has seen. I really enjoyed the direction of this story. Despite it being simple it kept me engaged with the twists and turns while also integrating sincerity. I guess it's because the story is personal to a certain extent to the director, the characters just came off as very sincere despite some of the backstabbing that goes on in it. I also loved Michael Shannon's performance in this, as this sensitive, romantic and stable chef that is in love with a younger woman. Overall, this is a personal film from the director I thoroughly enjoyed and it's one of the most romantic movies I have seen this year.9/10