Freak Show

Trudie Styler's first feature film is about staying loyal to yourself and what you stand for despite being bullied and physically assaulted. That this theme touched a nerve during the Berlinale, where it was shown in the Generation14+ youth section, was clear with a raving audience afterwards and long lines waiting before the cinema.

Bullying is still not taken serious enough in our society: nearly all people have experienced it at some time in their lives, either at work, school, leisure, at home or in the public space. Leading often to violence by the bullied person, or depression and in the worst cases suicide, the latter being the leading cause of death among the age group of 15-25. So this movie will be a good education tool for schools to discuss the theme.

The movie is fluently directed, well edited by Sophia Copolla's frequent editor Sarah Flack, has wonderful costumes and the soundtrack plus score is fitting. Although mostly aimed at a youth audience, Bette Midler and John McEnroe have small roles so the parents aren't left out. The young British actor Alex Lawther (the young Alan Turing in The Imitation Game) played the lead character Billy Bloom and has some future ahead I guess.

There is an interesting parallel with Mean Girls, as the part where Billy analyses his voters and classmates has the same kind of sociological and psychological analysis that made that movie so interesting.

During the Q&A afterwards Trudie talked about how certain bullies receive great power, sometimes even leading to the White House. And bullying is indeed often associated with the so-called dark triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy).

Alex Lawther's acting is the best thing about this movie. He breathed life into this movie that easily might have been worse.

Kudos to the writers for trying, but this movie suffers from what most teen movies do: one dimensional characters and weak scripts. Almost all of the characters are cardboard cut outs whose actions are predictable - The jock who hates being a jock, the bitchy cheerleader, clueless parents (including Bette Midler's overacted alcoholic mother), the secretly gay bully in love with the protagonist, etc...

There were some genuinely funny moments though.

This film main character is my favourite actor: ALEX LAWTHER ,This story is about a boy how to survive in their highschool. He love to dress up himself like a pretty girl.So have many people feel weird of his action and bully him with violence.But he is still considence and insist on being himself.In this story I learned that :Everyone chooses the way they lived ,we can't criticize and judge the other person life. We must give the respect for them.

Freak Show has easily been my most eagerly awaited movie of the past year and when it was finally released I waisted no time in seeing it however I was left deflated and in need of something more, ultimately the story being told is important and deserved a better script, with more fleshed out characters, potrayls, more feeling, emotion, warmth and it was good for what it was but it could have really been special if they had of tried more.

I'm new to the boundfully talented Alex Lawther and I have quickly signed myself up as a fan of his so when I realised that he was the lead in this movie I was thrilled and when you throw in Bette Midler who has been attached to this project since they beginning then I settled myself in for what I expected to be quite the treat of a movie.

Early on in the movie I found myself mesmerized by Lawther, he captivates you with his genuine, awkward, honest and charming potrayal of Billy Bloom. His refreshing and quiet brilliant style of acting with his subtle yet on the money mannerisms, movements and playfulness with the dialogue is wonderful however it's just a shame that all this talent was for the most part waisted on what could have been something really special.

Going in to this movie I wasn't sure what message I was going to get at the end but expected for the movie to be more multi layered than what was offered. I was expecting a world wind of emotion, anger and frustration due to story being told at the heart of the movie being unfairly and frustratingly as real in today's society as it has for generations, they issue and story deserves better and more than a one-dimentional, phone it in movie that overall for me felt like an educational movie that would be played in schools. Were was the backstory and multi-layered characters...why should I believe in and releate to Billy Bloom or get angry or a better understanding of the beliefs of Abigail Breslins character? The characters were flat and stereotypical with no depth. I wanted warmth and emotion from Billy Bloom as he fought to be who he wanted to be...i wanted anger and frustration...tears and fight when he was told he couldn't be who he wanted to be and I have no doubt that given the right material Alex Lawther could have truly shined in this role.

Bette Midler as Muv was really Bette Midler being the usual Bette Midler, her character was a mess and not fully explained and appeared to be a after thought when it came to meaning and point but the same can be said for the rest of the supporting cast who looked to be phoning it in and bored throughout.

Lawther is fabulous but at times can overly theatrical in a way that distracted me from what was happening in a scene, i wanted less costume changes and more storytelling...ok he is flamboyant gay but we didn't need 8-9 costume changes to make that point...less is more and I think the movie relied to much on the visual than the dialogue and meaning of why this story and issue needed to be told.

In the end I wanted less FREAK SHOW and more just good old storytelling...the subject matter deserved a lot more.

Cute, fun, movie about being who you truly are. It didn't blow my socks off, but it had some good messages about being independent and brave. Some cliché moments but also some heartfelt ones. And Bette Midler is always fun to see.