Not all spoilers wear capes.
It’s a dangerous world out there, specially for a seven year old girl. Then again, if you’re watching this in Fantasia, chances are there’s more to that story. There’s a lot of times that angles are low to the ground, as this movie seems to be told from the perspective of a child. Obviously, you have to believe your parents, right? There’s no way that your father would like to you about the world being dangerous to you. What’s all this talk about being normal, anyways?
Freaks was written and directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein. The story begins in earnest about a story told only inside the condemned house where Chloe (Lexy Kolker) and her father (Emile Hirsch) hide from the rest of society. Her father is a desperate man, who barely gets any sleep and goes out to scavenge for food. Chloe is told to never go outside, but there is a mysterious ice cream truck that keeps passing by her house. The ice cream man (Bruce Dern) seems nice… Or creepy. Chloe just loves ice cream and dad has a safe where he keeps tons of money and guns.
This movie starts small, just Chloe and his father inside a condemned house trying to stay low. There are people after them and his father sometimes bleeds from his eyes. The story evolves before our eyes slowly revealing what the world has become and why Chloe’s father is so adamant in training her to act normal. The problem is Chloe is starting to discover a strange ability that will definitely set her apart from the rest and put her in harm’s way. There’s a distinct homage to Stephen King’s Firestarter and the 1984 movie of the same name. The material is reminiscent of the X-Men comics, but more focused on the human drama of persecution.
Strongly recommended with a couple of reservations. It’s definitely a movie with strong performances and an audience pleaser, but the tonal shift in the film albeit well handled means you’re going to see two movies: the movie you think it is, and the other movie that reveals itself only as it goes by. I have hinted at special abilities and persecution because I want to give you an idea of the second movie once the layer is peeled off. How and why is worth discovering on your own.
That will do for now.
Never Think Impossible 