Review of Freaks

Freaks is a cult-classic for obvious reasons that tight-rope walks a fine line between exploitation and authentic story-telling. At times it veers too heavily toward sensationalistic self-indulgence or misplaced sympathy/false nobility, while at others it strikes an earnest tone, providing a complex study of human behavior at its best and worst. Anyway you slice it, the film ultimately suffers because of its failure to reach a coherent underlying identity. Equally unfortunate is the fact that there's no chance of the performances redeeming the shortcoming of the script. Most of the major players are not actors, reflected quite obviously by their performances. This is not a criticism, only an observation of the difficulty inherent to making a too often unmoving story moving without the benefit of top-notch talent. Personally I found it difficult to become engrossed in a story that the story-tellers seemed ambivalent about. See it if you're one of those people like me who insists on witnessing ground-breaking achievements in cinema, but otherwise don't go out of your way.