The biopic is such a staid genre that any attempt at doing something unique with its form is cause for excitement, if not outright celebration. Franz is that sort of daring endeavor, investigating the life of famed writer and novelist Franz Kafka through a kaleidoscopic lens that allows fiction and reality, memory, and fantasy, and the past, present, and future to freely commingle like intertwining streams. Going into Franz with some knowledge of Kafka is recommended, as Holland and Marek Epstein’s script wastes no time establishing straightforward particulars, all of which only become clear as the action courses along its...