Teen coming-of-age films always try to convey the quirky mess of emotions that come with growing up and falling in love. Some Freaks captures that bittersweet alienation that brings together the most unlikely of people, the outcasts and the misfits. Matt is a one-eyed Cyclops (as the kids like to call him) and Jill is the plus-sized girl tired of the uninventive fat jokes. A very awkwardly sweet meet-cute dissecting a pig in science class sparks a friendship that transforms into love. The film is typical in the beginning, pushing the protagonists through all the stages of high school, if only a little more brass in its approach.
As the film progresses into the second act, it moves from a teen-love story to the reality that occurs after we leave high school behind. After Jill moves back across the country for college, the couple spends some time apart. No longer the “fat” loner that Matt once knew, he has to adjust himself to the new person he finds in California. While the film explores ideas of body image and the fetishization of plus-sized girls, it is ultimately about growing up and confronting who we think we are and who other people think we are, how similar or different those two identities might be and how they might change.
Writer/director Ian MacAllister-McDonald explores the ironic notion of loneliness being the thing that connects us all, how we all face that feeling of being an outsider. We see this in the beautifully complicated relationship that flourishes and then dwindles between Matt and Jill (a really great performance and chemistry between lead actors Lily Mae Harrington and Thomas Mann), with the knowledge that they no longer need each other to feel less alone. These ideas are less nuanced and less explored in the characters of Elmo and Patrick. The closeted gay best friend of Matt and the pretty boy who wants to prove he’s much more. It’s a shame their stories weren’t regarded as more than plot points to advance the movie, because they could’ve made it that much stronger.
What McDonald delivers with his directorial début is an at-times faulty script that manages to stand out for its small cast of fleshed out characters that breathe life into what it means to be human. These characters feel real because they yearn for that connection and love all of us want, they want to feel wanted and like they matter to someone in this world. In that sense, aren’t we all the same?
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