Freak Show - LGBTQ review

If ‘Mean Girls’ and ‘Rocky Horror’ and ‘Saved!’ got together in an open marriage and raised a slightly entitled but ultimately endearing child - 4/5 stars

An excellent film with strong LGBTQ themes ‘Freak Show’ will particularly find a home within the community and strike a serious chord with the millennial generation.

Adapted from the James St James (‘Party Monster’) novel, gender-bending, bullying, identity and belonging are all handled here with the expected amount of care and fabulousness. Trudy Styler’s directorial debut shows some signs of an inaugural project shot on a 22 day schedule. While an adept producer (‘Snatch’, ‘Filth’), Styler’s direction is slightly uneven. However, she successfully creates a moody, poignant and endearing film thanks largely to the casting of Alex Lawther ('Imitation Game', 'X+Y') as the main character, Billy Bloom.

Lawther’s performance is powerfully etherial. It deserves the type of iconic status lauded on Tim Curry and Guy Pearce in similar LGBTQ roles. Billy’s loud, he’s fabulous and so beautifully nuanced you’d hardly believe he wasn’t that queer* kid you knew in high school destined to be a New York trendsetter.

“Gender-obliterator” Billy

Alex Lawther is outstanding as Billy Bloom

With more than a smattering of Oscar Wilde quotes, the film sees Billy Bloom in a classic ‘fish out of water’ story. “Gender-obliterator” Billy is slightly unsympathetic at first as he moves from Connecticut to a small Virginia town. His fabulous mother, Bette Midler, whom he calls ‘Muv’, has armed him with a wardrobe of wigs and gowns as he’s sent to live with father, Larry Pine, whom Billy refers to as ‘Daddy’. It’s almost unbearable to watch as Billy preens and ‘hey-girl-heys’ his way through the first day of school. However, this is a reflection of his character - the caricature every teenager feels they need to play to be accepted.


After his mis-step Billy’s true heart is revealed. “I was used to being hated by some people. But not everyone,” we hear in voice-over as he privately rages in his wing of the house.

Category is – High school queer boy realness

'Freak Show' takes new stilettoed steps on
the well-trod teen dramady path

From there ‘Freak Show’ follows a well-worn story line but adds unexpected tweaks. AnnaSophia Robb ('Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', 'Race to Witch Mountain') is exquisitely endearing as more than forgettable fag-hag, solely known as ‘Blah Blah Blah’ or possibly, Mary-Jane. I can’t remember. Abigial Breslin (‘Little Miss Sunshine’, 'Zombieland') plays the holier-than-thou cheerleader homecoming queen, Lynette. We even get the queer-boy fantasy trope of the kindly jock, Flip Kelly, who might be gay played by Ian Nelson ('The Best of Me', 'The Boy Next Door'). It all paints a slightly more beautifully complex picture of reality than you’d expect.

But, that’s the problem. The film is painting us a picture in black light neon colours but telling us it's a photograph. It wants desperately to be authentic but sketches so many pastiche figures that it would lend itself more to satire than earnest. The jock, the mean girl, the overtly camp gay kid - it’s all so obvious at the start. But, the choice of direction is not. There are either too many winks to camera or not enough.

We get Lavern Cox who is radiant as the local reporter. Even John McEnroe, Styler’s real-life neighbour, is well placed as a sort of campy but sincere gym coach. It’s all very John Waters. But, the audience is only in on it some of the time, seeing the world through Billy’s sequinned Louis Vuitton spectacles. Other times we’re given the detached modern-punk-quirk docu-style grit that we’ve seen before from the film’s editor, Sarah Flack (‘Lost in Translation’, ‘Marie Antoinette’ and basically every Sophia Coppola flick). Tonally it doesn’t all hang together and the start of the film falls somewhere in between tongue-in-cheek and opera.

YASS, bish! Slay!

Alright, Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close up!

The film hit its stride once Billy and Flip’s friendship begins. Billy’s other-ness gains media attention and some traction in changing the hearts and minds of his classmates. Here, in the spotlight, Billy and his story ‘bloom’ and we really begin to feel the fantasy!

The young cast all pop in their individual performances. All around great guy/heart throb Flip can be a bit one note. And the comedy of Breslin’s Lynette is a bit hit and miss. But her prom queen speech is spot on with direct quotes from Donald Trump’s crib sheet.

The seasoned actors who take on the adult roles made the heartfelt moments mesmerising. Casting Celia Weston as the maid, Florence, kept this steady sage figure from being a stereotype. She held together the smaller moments, providing the warmth and down to earth roaming commentary needed to balance out the high drama. And yes, Bette Middler is just as magnificent, chic and heart breaking as you want her to be. The fan boy in me wanted a title track song! *dream big*

The 'sassy boy runs for prom-queen’ story that the film is billed on is thankfully saved for the third act. It’s actually more about Billy's discovery of self and and less about confrontation of ‘normal’. It's refreshing to see an LGBTQ person take the journey from 'thinking you know who you are and shoving it in other people’s faces' to 'knowing who you are and just being ok with it'. And every single character - young, old, gay, jock, cheerleader, ‘shadow people’ - are on that journey as well.

“Aren’t we all just freaks,” Billy concludes.

Don’t dream it. Just be it.

In some ways 'Freak Show' is braver than Rocky Horror

Overall, ‘Freak Show’ is one to watch. It’s a beautiful story of identity and gender ideas, and sadly the costs of standing up for that. It’s affirming in the idea that just by being yourself you win.

I’m sure that, if I was still in my 20s, this would have been a defining film for me. And I hope it will be for those who are. Still, I want to see ‘Freak Show’ again. I want to see it go on and inform and elevate the art and culture of today in ways that only queer culture can.

The problems in tone can be forgiven and ‘Freak Show’ stands strong among other LGBTQ films that have pushed the boundaries. Yes, this ground has been trod before. But ‘Freak Show’ has more than a little bit to add. It pushes the limit but makes us see that this gender-bending free expression is anything but deprave - it's beautiful, necessary and, yes, normal! We're here, we're queer, get used to it.

'Freak Show' aired at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2017.

*Queer, being the ‘Q’ in LGBTQ in this case, can mean many things to many people. I’m using queer as meaning a self-defined group of people who don’t subscribe to traditional ideas of gender-identity and expression.