Frank & Lola (2016)

3 Stars (out of 4)

Simmering

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Much like Elvis & Nixon, Michael Shannon stars in another small-scale film, focused mainly on two characters, and excels at it. He plays Frank, a talented chef in Las Vegas who forms a romantic relationship with the beautiful fashion designer Lola (Imogen Poots). The jovial, slightly smarmy Keith (Justin Long) gives her a job, and Frank begins to worry that he has designs on her. His obsession and jealousy grows when she tearfully tells him about a man who raped her, earlier, in Paris. He uses a potential job interview to fly to France and investigate the man, Alan (Michael Nyqvist), but learns still more dark secrets about his lover's past. Written and directed by Matthew Ross -- who, apparently, at one time considered making this into a play -- Frank & Lola works amazingly well as a quiet piece of sex-driven film noir (like Body Heat, where even fancy restaurants seem to be places of doom and deception. Las Vegas is the perfect setting, almost a character in itself. Emmanuelle Devos and Rosanna Arquette both appear briefly.