Review Freaks Out – Review on FilmTotaal
Director: Gabriele Mainetti | Screenplay: Nicola Guaglianone and Gabriele Mainetti | To emit: Claudio Santamaria (Fulvio), Aurora Giovinazzo (Matilde), Pietro Castellitto (Cencio), Giancarlo Martini (Mario), Giorgio Tirabassi (Israel), Max Mazzotta (The Hunchback), Franz Rogowski (Franz Rogowski (Franz), Francesca Anna Bellucci ( Cesira), and in | Time to play: 141 minutes | Year: 2021
A girl who is constantly under high voltage, a magnetic clown of small proportions, a Chewbacca look-alike with super strength, and an albino who can talk to bugs. These four Italian circus patrons are going to take on the Nazis in the new Italian adventure show Freaks out. With the audience award from the Rotterdam International Film Festival in its pocket, this film is now storming Dutch cinemas and acrobatically jumping from one side to the other.
The film opens with a circus show, in which our four main characters display their powers, which is soon disturbed by the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. Shortly after the main character, Matilde, lights a light bulb just by picking it up, someone is dragging through a war zone with one arm blown off. And that’s just the beginning of this balancing act between entertaining spectacle and the seriousness of war, which Freaks out shoot you.
After the Nazis capture their ringmaster named Israel, the foursome must go to Rome to track him down. But alas, if there is not an evil German circus figure who wants to thwart his plans! This Franz sees in our heroes Matilda, Fulvio, Cencio and Mario the last hope for the Third Reich. He’s already seen the end of the Führer in a vision during drug intoxication, and he believes this superpowered quartet can still save the day.
The film is well aware of the comparison that can be made between circus people and superheroes. Franz even literally calls the four main characters “fantastic four”. The ending, which may live up to the CGI ugliness of a Zack Snyder project, emphasizes that even more. But especially disturbing is that this movie fails to keep such an interesting fact completely riveting for a long duration. At some point you will understand.
It’s interesting to think that people with superpowers mainly use them to perform cheap circus tricks, while people in the real world perform tricks to make you believe they have supernatural powers. Mario sticks spoons into his forehead, Fulvia bends pistols, Twelve-fingered Franz plays Radiohead and Led Zeppelin’s greatest hits in bombastic classical style on his grand piano. But to the extent that you can find depth in Freaks out That’s what it says.
But especially annoying are unnecessary moments, compressed for pleasant images, but no more than that. Like a glimpse of one of Franz’s visions. She gets to see things that we know he already knows. But he reacts like it’s the first time he’s seen them. With a little more attention to how you present it, this could have been a good scene, but now you get the idea that the filmmaker is trying to placate you and call you an idiot at the same time.
However, it is Freaks out It’s really not a bad movie. The characters stand out very well against each other, the acting is funny, and the film displays an ambition that is rare in European cinema. It’s mostly the trifles that stand out in the face of a great entertaining adventure and the message to embrace who you are. You should put your head off for a while and jump aboard this magnificent cinematic ride.