Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: FREAKS OUT [International Film Festival Rotterdam 2022 - Virtual]

The texture of "Freaks Out" [Limelight] finds a unique pantheon that "Amelie" at times carried but the delivery loses a little of its life along the way. Despite that, the film is still is still a fun, odd and beautiful missive on the state of outcasts without going too overtly dark. Now granted the film takes place in Italy during the height of Nazi occupation in Europe. Certain deeper cuts of story speak to a potential that was there and not necessarily fully realized. The story revolves around a troupe of circus performers, all with special abilities but with a light in Matilde, a teenager (played by Aurora Giovinazzo) who has a relationship with electricity. It is her performance that anchors the entire film. Sometimes her tone is exactly right. Sometimes it gets melodramatic. The same can be said of the score which can be leading and in other ways brilliant. Opposing these four circus performers (one a wolfman, one a small man with control of magnets and another who can control insects) is a six fingered man named Franz (Franz Rogowski). He has an ability (highlighted by some artificial means) that is the portal which gives the movie a significantly bigger world (though never fully embraces it).

The use of two pieces of music and specifically one trip he goes on completely elevates the film's motifs. The consistent structure of the film in the background though also parallels with the Italian Resistance as well as the rounding up of Jews to send back to Germany. In this way, tonally the film is remarkably able to balance, bring some lightness but not forget its darker themes. The thematics of identity, morality and fear of course are woven throughout along with a bit of levity in certain scenes (including a comedic seduction of the "freaks" scene when they join the traveling Berlin circus). This sequence releases some of the pressure. The problem is that the ending, although motivated story-wise, becomes too much of a melee and takes away from the whimsy of earlier parts of the film in its attempt or need to resolve or create a big finish. Despite this nonetheless, "Freaks Out" is a crowd pleaser with a large story and conceptual ambition and a texturre of tone that, while in certain ways similar to "Nightmare Alley", takes a completely different approach. B

By Tim Wassberg