Freak Show (15.)
Directed by Trudie Styler.
Starring Alex Lawther, Abigail Breslin, AnnaSophia Robb, Ian Nelson, Celia Weston, Larry Pine and Bette Midler. 91 mins.
Of all the rafts of cultural indoctrination Hollywood disseminates around the globe, the most pernicious and baffling is the High School movie. No other country so venerates its education system on screen but the rites and rituals of these institutions – the prom, the homecoming, the yearbook, the big football game, the caste system of jocks and nerds – are as sinister and mystifying as those of a black mass, and just as evil. People get vexed over the state of gun crazed America but I'd counter that they are comparatively well adjusted considering the upbringings they all seem to go through.
The latest sacrificial offering is Billy Bloom (Lawther) an effete, eyeliner-wearing, Oscar Wilde spouting crossdresser who after being brought up by his mother (Midler) is transferred to his father's (Pine) care and sent to a high school in the south. In an attempt to fit in on his first day he dresses down and wears an Adam Ant costume, but almost instantly he is assailed by a barrage of abuse and assaults. Bloom responds by antagonising his attackers, and going full Junior Naked Civil Servant, wearing a succession of outfits that make him look like either Dakota Fanning or Judy Davis and picking a fight with the evil, Christian Homecoming Queen Breslin (the now not so little Miss Sunshine.)
Bloom's father is disappointed with how his son has turned out (though he's trying to come to terms with him) but, really, if he's going to breed with Bette Midler what did he expect. Alex Lawther, who was the young Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, and the best performer in Ghost Stories – is a talented, charismatic performer but he can't overcome the film's main flaw: that for a film about diversity, its main character is a total conformist. His every line and gesture seems to come from a random camp dialogue generator. He's like a Danny Dyer gangster role where every line is Geezer/ muppet/ treacle/ babe with interchangeable expletives.
Tolerance of those that are different is a precious quality but did it not occur to anyone that Billy might be more accepted if he wasn't so full of himself and patronising. He considers himself fabulous and a crusader for beauty in a drab world and is intolerant of anything that doesn't conform to his own particular standards of fabulousness. He is condescending to everyone, doesn't know the name of the person who befriends him (Robb) and acts in a high handed way that might generate a slap in any workplace in the world. Plus, unlike most kids who get bullied for being different, he has a father who is obscenely wealthy and his best friend is the school quarter back, who stands up for him.
Anyway, apart from the habit of beating suspected homosexuals into a coma, the Ulysses S. Grant academy has a strong record on diversity and tolerance. In a society that worships physical perfection and hard body fascism, they are about to elect a total porker as homecoming queen and nobody bats an eyelid.
Directed by Trudie Styler.
Starring Alex Lawther, Abigail Breslin, AnnaSophia Robb, Ian Nelson, Celia Weston, Larry Pine and Bette Midler. 91 mins.
Of all the rafts of cultural indoctrination Hollywood disseminates around the globe, the most pernicious and baffling is the High School movie. No other country so venerates its education system on screen but the rites and rituals of these institutions – the prom, the homecoming, the yearbook, the big football game, the caste system of jocks and nerds – are as sinister and mystifying as those of a black mass, and just as evil. People get vexed over the state of gun crazed America but I'd counter that they are comparatively well adjusted considering the upbringings they all seem to go through.
The latest sacrificial offering is Billy Bloom (Lawther) an effete, eyeliner-wearing, Oscar Wilde spouting crossdresser who after being brought up by his mother (Midler) is transferred to his father's (Pine) care and sent to a high school in the south. In an attempt to fit in on his first day he dresses down and wears an Adam Ant costume, but almost instantly he is assailed by a barrage of abuse and assaults. Bloom responds by antagonising his attackers, and going full Junior Naked Civil Servant, wearing a succession of outfits that make him look like either Dakota Fanning or Judy Davis and picking a fight with the evil, Christian Homecoming Queen Breslin (the now not so little Miss Sunshine.)
Bloom's father is disappointed with how his son has turned out (though he's trying to come to terms with him) but, really, if he's going to breed with Bette Midler what did he expect. Alex Lawther, who was the young Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, and the best performer in Ghost Stories – is a talented, charismatic performer but he can't overcome the film's main flaw: that for a film about diversity, its main character is a total conformist. His every line and gesture seems to come from a random camp dialogue generator. He's like a Danny Dyer gangster role where every line is Geezer/ muppet/ treacle/ babe with interchangeable expletives.
Tolerance of those that are different is a precious quality but did it not occur to anyone that Billy might be more accepted if he wasn't so full of himself and patronising. He considers himself fabulous and a crusader for beauty in a drab world and is intolerant of anything that doesn't conform to his own particular standards of fabulousness. He is condescending to everyone, doesn't know the name of the person who befriends him (Robb) and acts in a high handed way that might generate a slap in any workplace in the world. Plus, unlike most kids who get bullied for being different, he has a father who is obscenely wealthy and his best friend is the school quarter back, who stands up for him.
Anyway, apart from the habit of beating suspected homosexuals into a coma, the Ulysses S. Grant academy has a strong record on diversity and tolerance. In a society that worships physical perfection and hard body fascism, they are about to elect a total porker as homecoming queen and nobody bats an eyelid.
