VENICE 2021: Freaks Out
01 DistributionItalian cinema is not particularly renowned for its genre films these days: outside of comedies, it is very hard to find movies that take bold choices with their direction or content. Filmmaker Gabriele Mainetti took the country by storm in 2015 with his film They Call Me Jeeg, an atypical and wholly surprising superhero film that was a breath of fresh air for the industry. Right after the film was distributed, Mainetti started working on a bigger, bolder, and more ambitious project that saw many delays during production and post-production.
Finally, Freaks Out has come, premiering in competition at the 78th Venice Film Festival. Set in Rome during World War II, the film follows a group of four circus performers – all with special abilities – who try to survive the Nazi and fascist occupation of the country. In a way, this still qualifies as a superhero movie, and the quality of the production – one of the most expensive Italian films as of late – is on par with that of Hollywood blockbusters. Spectacular special effects give life to a Jane Grey-like girl or a man who can control insects, with highly detailed and period-accurate locations that are gorgeously shot by the talented Michele D’Attanasio, and an eclectic soundtrack that features a sweeping orchestral score by Michele Braga and Mainetti himself, as well as piano renditions of songs like Radiohead’s Creep, which is not as random as it might seem in context.
Freaks Out might seem like an accessible, family-friendly mainstream film on the surface, but in reality, it has just as much grit and edginess as the filmmaker’s previous effort. Expect to see graphic sex scenes – including a weirdly humorous moment of male full frontal nudity – explicit violence against men, women, children, and disabled individuals, and a lot of mean-spirited jokes at the expense of Jews and the lead girl. In a way, it has much of the same whiplash tonal shifts that were typical of 1980s cinema that Mainetti is clearly homaging, but it never feels like he is in on the joke, making for multiple uncomfortable moments of comedy that really belong to another era.
The cast is perfectly chosen here, with protagonists Claudio Santamaria (the Wolfman), Aurora Giovinazzo (the Electric Girl), Pietro Castellitto (Bugboy), and Giancarlo Martini (the Magnetic Dwarf) wonderfully embodying their characters and sharing strong chemistry with one another. Christian Petzold favourite Franz Rogowski plays the villain, a six-fingered Nazi official who uses drugs to have visions of the future. While there are still a few moments of line delivery that ring hollow and overly theatrical (especially from Santamaria), no one performance stands out as being either excellent or poor, everyone working in service of the greater narrative.
It is a shame that Freaks Out has very little to say by the time the credits start to roll (after an overly long climactic battle that was mind-numbing to watch). It is a simple piece of entertainment, too big and ambitious for its own good, that does not have any unique insight into the tragedies of World War II nor unique situations or characters that end up being memorable. However, it is one of the most refreshing and unconventional films to come out of Italy in the past few years, ironic when you consider how closely it mirrors American films in both style and narrative.