directed by:
Jacques Aldridge written by: Jacques Aldridge genre: Comedy, Drama |
I've gotta admit, in the first five minutes of watching "Freaks And Heroes," I felt like I had no idea what this movie was going to be like, and I was starting to suspect we might not even see the main character's face onscreen. Photographer Naks Turner is basically losing his mind in a place in Phoenix, freezing his ever-lovin' ass off, and ranting & raving about how cold he is to his sister in-law. And that goes…and goes…for quite some time…to the point where you end up feeling bad for Naks, because nobody would go on for so long about being so cold if they really weren't—made me reach for my own thermostat.
I have goals in life like everybody else does, though, and when I saw Therese's weed box for the first time, I realized I had another. I smoked greens for the better part of thirty years straight, and never once did I ever have a box to contain 'em even half the size that Therese has. To say I'm jealous would be putting it mildly, and envious would at least be more accurate. Anyhow – I think you get the point, it's one of the bigger laughs you'll get on the inside of the first fifteen minutes or so, and before you know it, you're off with Naks from Phoenix to Penrith, so he can await his first interview with a major media outlet. From there, it's a whole lot of drinking, smoking, talking, and more drinking in between. The film is centred around Turner, but you will meet a few other quirky characters along the way – all of which you will grow to wonder whether or not they really exist, or if they're only in Naks' mind. So, hmm. I am well aware of the fact that "Freaks and Heroes" is undoubtedly going to appeal to a very niche and narrow slice of the potential audience out there. I look at it this way – it's really the kind of story that is probably best suited to become a theatrical production rather than a movie, but it would appeal to the same crowd more or less. To be completely fair, I'd also be one of the people who would happily watch Writer/Director/Star Jacques Aldridge in a one-man play, Shakespeare, or really anything at all… he's remarkably watchable & brilliantly unique from my perspective. I don't confuse this with him being understood by the masses, or that they might feel the same way I do – I know that what Jacques is doing is an extremely tough sell. He's got the kind of uniqueness that likely works just as much for him as it does against, and there's really not much else that can be said about that. I'll put it to ya this way – he's already made peace with that. You don't end up making films like this without being keenly aware of who you are and the fact that not everyone out there 'gets' you. Those that do will be happy to take the ride & see where a film like "Freaks and Heroes" goes, even if it moves at a tremendously slow pace. There are many things that are also destined to be troublesome for the viewers. The almost bizarre use of stock footage threaded into some scenes. The time Naks spends on some of the more mundane parts of the film, like the heat at the beginning, sending someone away or moving someone in the right frame to take their picture, laughter, drinking, or picking out the colour of sweaters. He's essentially using the same theories that comedians do with repetition…that if you keep a joke going, it eventually becomes funnier…but it can often play like how a musician uses repetition to cover up a mistake they never wanted to make in the first place. If I'm looking at this objectively, I might personally dig Turner's strange sense of humor, and he often made me laugh in watching "Freaks And Heroes" – but I'd still be the first to tell you he found about as many spots to generate good jokes as he did try something else that didn't quite land with the intended impact. The results make it a bit on the uneven side to watch, and it can often feel like this movie is rolling along on a fresh set of square wheels. As far as the scenes themselves are shot, Naks has a few weird ideas as to what needs to be shot or how, but for the most part, incorporates a fairly clean and fairly straightforward still-cam type of shooting. What it really comes down to, though, more than any one thing you might pick out in the direction or writing, is that so much of the weight of this film is resting entirely on Aldridge's shoulders. There is often so little going on visually - that it is often just Naks onscreen talking, and it can feel like watching one big extended monologue. Again, if you like Turner as a character, you're in great shape – but if you didn't, you'd be facing a monumental obstacle in being able to enjoy the rest of this movie. Even as a person who does enjoy this particular character that Aldridge has created, I still feel like I needed more variation than Naks' drinking, smoking, or taking pictures – these are his three main activities when he's not rambling on about something random.
As far as the plotline is concerned, I recognize that he's up against it here. We're really not talking about a storyline that's very complex, but somehow Aldridge manages to make it that way…so you end up in this somewhat tangled mess that is moving very slowly around Naks making it to his interview, which seemingly takes forever because we're really just watching a movie centered around its dialog. It gets to the point where you feel like you must be missing something, because it is so noticeably unhurried to move along its main storyline. Fair enough when it comes right down to it – there's not a whole lot to it – but Aldridge might have very well spread this movie out perilously thin. On the bright side, Aldridge has a master's grip on dialogue. So even though that's really the bulk of what you end up watching, and "Freaks and Heroes" isn't the most visually compelling movie you're going to see this year, the use of language is pretty much exquisite. Built like a drunken rant from a remarkable poet, it's eloquent AF, but quite cleverly shrouded within a hazy cloak of confusion that's going to be practically impenetrable for the average everyday viewer. Again, it's a part of this film that works both for and against it. I type these word-things up all day long - and even I had a glorious amount of trouble trying to keep up with the way Aldridge's mind works. It's very tough to know what's going to be a relevant detail to the plot, and what's just more rambling from the drunken state of our main character. You could pretty much enjoy "Freaks and Heroes" in the way you'd enjoy a podcast or an ASMR video, rather than try to count on it to stimulate you too much on a visual level. If you're the type of person who likes language and phonetics, monologues and dialogue, you'll love listening to what's happening in this movie along the way. Shoestring budget or not, though, Aldridge still has plenty of room to evolve in his craft in terms of what he chooses to show us, and consider things from the viewer's perspective. Ultimately, it's the story of one man searching for some purpose and a semblance of artistic validation. They say art imitates life, do they not? As you head into the scenes, around about an hour and seven minutes in, you have to wonder how much of what Naks is saying is something that Jacques would say about his own life. We start to wonder in watching a film like this, made the way that it is, about whether there is much separation at all between its main character and its creator, or if they are indeed one and the same. Don't get me wrong, I get it, and I feel like I 'get' him as well – I do the majority of things I do completely alone, stuck in the paradox of never wanting it to be any other way & confusion as to why not everyone in the world doesn't understand or connect to all of the things I do. I'm going to go with three stars out of five here, knowing that my rating is based a little stronger and towards how I personally feel about it. The ending is insightfully good – it may seem like it takes a day or two to get to it, but Aldridge saves his most vividly profound observations for the finale of his film. |
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