Michael Scott
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Freak Show
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“Buckle up darlings, I’m gonna take you on a wild ride I call my life” croons teenage drag lover Billy Bloom (Alex Lawther) in the opening shot. Well, when you’ve got a glut of rich, bored teenagers in films these days, it seems like a “one up” showmanship as each one is a bit crazier than the rest, but Freak Show really does take you by the hand lead you down the bizarre life of Billy Bloom and his crazy, but styled, world he calls his life. We’ve not had a whole of of Drag queen movies lately, with the only ones I PERSONALLY can remember being classics like To Wong Foo, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and the whacked out John Waters movies starring Divine. However, Freak Show is not nearly so cleverly humorous as To Wong Foo, or delightfully charming as Priscilla Queen of the Desert. It starts out roguishly witty and taking the world by the horns, but soon devolves into brightly painted cliches and narcissism that is just plain bleak and uninviting. There are glimpses of fun and some sweet moments, but those moments aren’t as blatant as the oppressive narcissism that permeates the hopeless plight of the classic “be yourself!” mantra that Freak Show tries to promote.
Bill Bloom is an out and proud drag queen of a teenager, who was raised by his glamour girl mother (played by Bette Midler) until she unfortunately died. Now, the glamour saturated teenager is back in one of those OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO so oppressive “red” states with his rich tycoon father who just doesn’t understand him. With wealth and privilege comes so much torturous pain, as Billy refuses to be anything but himself for the ultra conservative school that he’s forced to attend. Which naturally results in some pretty twisted bullying (one of which actually lands him in the hospital). Still, life is grand for the young teen, as he winds his way through the clicks and cliches of high school life, even going so far as to befriend the hunky football star who can “spot a Jackson Pollock from a mile away”.
However, things get a bit sticky when Billy decides that he wants to run as home coming queen and he is now forced to face the full brunt of the already heavily telegraphed bigotism. Running for queen in most high school is a bit of a popularity contest, but when you’re the gleeful social outcast, it’s even more daunting. Despite those road blocks, Billy pushes against the societal norms till he and the overly cliched religious zealot that he’s fighting against are the last two names on the upcoming vote.
What makes matters more interesting is that the movie has a weird juxtaposition of dreamy surreal fantasy, and bleak narcissism. The whole inclusion of Flip, the hunky football player is one of those moments, as he is a stark contrast to all of the cliches, but is never expounded upon as anything more than a boy-toy for Billy. After that the movie spirals downward into deep, dark, depressive narcissism where nothing will ever go right for the poor oppressed “freak show”, and the movie ends so bleakly as to make you wonder if this was anything more than a film saying “look, the world is mean, and if you’re different you’re going to live a life of hilariously over cliched abuse”.
Rating:
Not Rated by the MPAA
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Based upon the book by James St. James, Freak Show gives us a superficial look at a drag queen in hyper stylized world, but doesn’t really give us any MEAT to sink our teeth into. Trudie Styler gives her directorial debut all she has, but her film is a bit disjointed and never really coalesces into anything more than a parody of real life mixed in with all of the worst aspects of reality. Shout Factory’s Blu-ray is quite nice, with good video and audio, but sadly the only extra on the entire disc is a lone trailer for the film. I wanted to like the disc more than I did (I LOOOOOOOOOVE To Wong Fu), but the movie is bleakly narcissistic when it shouldn’t be, and whimsical when it shouldn’t be as well. As a result, I have to just suggest renting if you’re interested, or skipping entirely for everyone else.
Technical Specifications:
Starring: AnnaSophia Robb, Abigail Breslin, Alex Lawther
Directed by: Trudie Styler
Written by: Patrick J. Clifton, Beth Rigazio (Screenplay), James St. James (Novel)
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Studio: Shout Factory
Rated: NR
Runtime: 91 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: June 5th, 2018
Recommendation: Low Rental
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