'Franz' Review
- Jaylan Salah
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
Release Date: 08/21/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Biography. Drama. History.
MPAA: Not Rated.
Distributor: Cohen Media Group.
The Verdict: A Maybe
Biopics are not my favorite genre. They are worn out and downtrodden into sobby, award-baiting messes that galvanize fans of the subject or bring on admirers of the actor playing the part, regardless of the film's quality. But there are alluring public figures whose lives have been shrouded in mystery for the average moviegoer. Franz Kafka, a literary figure that still has an influence on our consciousness to this day -if I hear the word Kafkeseque one more time, I’m going to throw punches- is a mysterious persona, one that deserves a biopic of the highest caliber. His presence in modern literature and culture is undeniably poignant and time-relevant.
Polish director Agnieszka Holland is the captain behind this 127-minute-long epic. From the first scene, Franz Kafka (played brilliantly by Idan Weiss) stares into the camera, breaking the fourth wall with the audience. Holland solidifies her protagonist’s uncanny presence and cements his personality before the narrative progresses. A biopic never succeeds without a talented actor giving weight to the performance, and in Weiss, Holland has found her treasure. He dominates the screen as the possessed, eerie Kafka, haunting and haunted, determined to unleash his deep emotional power on the world through his words.
Holland showcases Kafka’s inner world, moving between decades and stages, and interjecting with inner and outer worlds. She smartly interprets the world of a writer suffocating under the weight of normalcy, not just by structuring the world from his point of view, but by making him invite us to see the world through his distorted, neurotic, borderline-paranoid vision. The result is a bit chaotic, especially when the supporting characters speak about him to the audience, which makes the pacing a little uneven. Still, the unconventional biopic holds its ground when the focus is on Kafka’s unique exploration of and reaction to his surroundings. This is where other people’s opinions on him pale in comparison. The same could be said of performances other than Weiss's, whether it’s Peter Kurth and Sandra Korzeniak as Franz’s father and mother, respectively, or the young actresses playing his sister and his lovers.
Franz does more than the chronological listing of a thinker’s life, highlighting his accomplishments and the obstacles he has faced. It’s a dark portal into a time eerily similar, and a mind tragically brilliant.
