BFI Flare review: Freak Show - a fantastic, feel-good and fabulous film

This year’s BFI Flare was lucky enough to host Freak Show, the 2017 teen comedy-drama starring fighting prejudice, bullies and bible belt America. Bette Midler also happens to star in it.

If you need more than the phrase 'Bette Midler is in it,' here we go: Based on the novel by James St James, this is a high school tale of non-conformity, identity and simple refusal to bow to the pressures of being a boring teenage drone. Billy (Alex Lawther) has been happily living with his mother Muv (Bette Midler) living his best gay life. Ball gowns, no boundaries and beauty treatments. But when Muv leaves the picture he’s shipped off to the centre of a conservative community in Connecticut to live with his detached father (Larry Pine). Billy enters the new school year dressed as Adam Ant, and proceeds to rock all manner of ball gowns, cosplay and iconic looks - this naturally paints a target on his back for every bully in a six-mile radius.

Instead of being browbeaten into the cookie-cutter production line of American teens, Billy sets out on a mission to show that ‘there is a freak in all of us’, and regardless of sexuality or gender identity people should just accept you for who the hell you are. With the help of straight allies in the form of a not-so-simple football star and a girl whose name no one can ever remember they try and take on the status quo. Think Mean Girls but for the RuPaul's Drag Race generation.

Alex Lawther can do no wrong as the teenage queer kid rebel His presence in and out of drag, comedic timing, and ability to do the twist from Pulp Fiction make this movie so very special. Director Trudie Styler has clearly let him run perfectly wild with this role but without ever forgetting the importance of what it represents. Yes, he can wear a gown and deliver put-downs so cutting they’ll draw blood, but he also handles the more serious moments too. The conflict with his father, the fight for acceptance for anyone who is a little bit different, and the emotionally brutal moments are delivered with flair, class and substance. There’s a very good reason he’s appearing in everything right now.

Bette Midler, of course, does a star turn as Muv, giving us the perfect insight into what makes Billy tick, while Laverne Cox really steals the show playing the exasperated local TV journalist. Her back and forth with ‘Jesus’ cheerleaders’ is hilarious and just made me want even more of her on screen. AnnaSophia Robb must also be mentioned for her excellent turn as the character Blah Blah Blah (yes, really); it can’t be easy playing what is effectively the ‘straight woman’ next to the bombastic and visually overpowering Billy, but she does so excellently. Blah Blah Blah is the best friend every queer kid deserves.

Freak Show is fantastic, feel-good and fabulous - a hugely funny and entertaining movie packed with all the laughs and touching moments only that level of camp can deliver.