The Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013 Presents:
Director Justin Edgar's 'We Are the Freaks' is a stylish 90s coming of age, comedy drama, showcasing the relationship between three friends (who are all outcasts in society for different reasons) over an eventful weekend that may shape the rest of their lives.
The film starts with a certain style and visual flare as Jamie Blackley commands the screen with charm and charisma, before he unexpectedly breaks through the 4th wall, talking directly to you, the audience, Ferris Bueller style. The opening 20 minutes is full of promise feeling both fresh and innovative as the film quickly draws you in through its lead character, Jack.
We follow Jack (Jamie Blackley) and his two oddball friends, Parsons (Mike Bailey) and Chunks (Sean Teale) on a Friday night that will change their lives.
Each of our three protagonists are misfits or as they see themselves 'Freaks' for one reason or another.
Jack who is from an underprivileged background struggles to achieve his ambitions due to his financial difficulties. The film however over his character as he awaits to hear if he has be awarded a college grant thus allowing him to attend University.
Parsons comes from a stern, claustrophobic and domineering family that have his life fully mapped out for him, regardless of his own views and ambitions. His girlfriend Claire (Rosamund Hanson) also knows what 'best' for him, which all comes to a 'head' in the second act. :P
And lastly there's Chunks (Sean Teale) the oddball, slightly insecure, eccentric, whose privileged background means he doesn't have to work and instead lives on his divorced parents guilty handouts.
We follow this trio of misfits through an eventful Friday night thats full of high-jinks, mishap and realisation.
What started with such promise slowly falls away to becoming rather generic and uninteresting. All the visual flare and creative novelties of the first 20 minutes are all but dropped. Before we even reach the end of the first act the 4th wall seems to have been rebuilt, never to come down again. The punchy repartee of dialogue in the opening sequences also seems to vanish making way for unconvincing and uninteresting word exchanges between characters, followed by throwaway gags and comedic set pieces that we have all seen before.
Michael Smiley (Kill List) offers a captivating performance as Killer Colin. His scenes are pitch perfect and offer the right balance of comedy and fear as we watch this volatile character fill the screen with great delight.
Jamie Blackley who starts strong slowly shrinks as the film progresses. Mike Bailey plays the unsuspecting comic relief, tragedy character but his performance often feels like a half baked impersonation of Will McKenzie from The Inbetweeners. Sean Teale who also starts with promise quickly becomes nothing more than an irritating one dimensional presence on screen.
By the end the film, despite its interesting moments, vibrancy and frequent skillful direction, it just seems to run out of steam. The films lack of commitment to what it's trying to say, ultimately leaves it all feeling a bit flat and essentially playing like an extended version of a not so funny Inbetweeners episode.
In-Short
We Are the Freaks isn't a bad film by any means, it just frustratingly teases us with enough moments of promise, skill and quirk to know there was a far better film in there somewhere. Instead, what we get is nothing we haven't seen a million times before.
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We Are the Freaks
2013
Action / Comedy / Drama
We Are the Freaks
2013
Action / Comedy / Drama
Plot summary
Three misfits embark on a weekend they will never forget.
Uploaded by: OTTO
May 30, 2015 at 05:23 AM
Director
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
An extended version of a not so funny Inbetweeners episode
Flawed but a lot of fun - I am a freak
I heard about this film from the press reviews which were generally
quite positive for a British comedy, so I thought it might have
something to it. I downloaded it while the wife was out and loved it.
It reminded me of being young, not fitting in and feeling like a bit of
a loser.
I expected some kind of Inbetweeners cash-in but its much smarter than
that, this is a film with something to say about youth, alienation and
Thatcher's Britain. The characters represent different strata of the
class system so we have rich kid Chunks who can't take life seriously,
middle class Parsons and poor Jack, whose character is interesting
because in socio-economic terms he is working class, but miles away
from the usual working class Ken Loach clichéd archetype.
Its actually a very smart teen movie which subverts all those tropes
like the geeky guy getting getting the girl - in this film she turns
out to be a pill popping raver with issues. Or the bad boy learning
something from a wise youth like in American Graffiti - in this film he
kills him accidentally! In the end nobody learns anything which I
understand will irritate a lot of people used to the 3-act Hollywood
morality play. At least this is something different even if it doesn't
always work.
The acting is good and its well-directed, a shame it didn't get more of
a release but I'm sure its destined to become a cult classic in years
to come with kids sitting watching it in their bedrooms smoking dope! I
am a Freak!
We Are Freaks? I Don't Think So.
I simply don't see the purpose of this film. It's called 'We Are
Freaks' however there's nothing at all exceptionally different about
the characters. I'd say the kids are all normal/verging on fairly dull
middle-class youngsters. Perhaps the film should be called: Woo! We're
Really Crazy & Mad-Capped Weirdos, Honest!
Clearly I'm being ironic with my suggested title, but it is more
accurate than 'We Are Freaks'. 'Boring Unoriginal Pre-Accountant Brats'
would be another title more in sync with the Characters on screen.
There's not much more to be said. A dull story & dull characters in a
dull world. Perhaps they are freaks? Not! (early 90s reference there)