barbarampagan The preformance of "billy" wow how talented . Amazing production . My respects to the director and writers . The only thing is i press play on this movie cause i saw BETT MIDLERs name on it and im so glad i did . Im in love with the freak show great movie . It so much like days are in realyty . Recspect please no bulling at schools.

Jack_Brock Alex Lawther's acting is the best thing about this movie. He breathed life into this movie that easily might have been worse.Kudos to the writers for trying, but this movie suffers from what most teen movies do: one dimensional characters and weak scripts. Almost all of the characters are cardboard cut outs whose actions are predictable - The jock who hates being a jock, the bitchy cheerleader, clueless parents (including Bette Midler's overacted alcoholic mother), the secretly gay bully in love with the protagonist, etc...There were some genuinely funny moments though.

Suradit At the start of the movie Billy Bloom (Alex Lawther) does come across as being a little too fabulous in his behavior and appearance. I can see why that would be off-putting to many people. And possibly that was the point. We judge others based on first impressions which are almost always superficial because we don't have anything more to consider. Billy's parents are separated and each show only a shallow, mostly hands-off interest in their son. Florence, the housekeeper, is passively sympathetic and protective, but unable to be meaningfully supportive. Billy is essentially alone and coping with his confused sense of self by being as provocatively freakish as he can be.When Billy starts at a new school, he deliberately alienates himself from the other students by letting his "freak flag fly" in the most flamboyant way imaginable. He is understandably the target of bullying both trivial and physical.Then, for reasons not easily understood, he attracts the friendship of one of the school's most popular, decidedly straight, male students, Flip Kelly ( Ian Nelson). Flip becomes the catalyst that helps Billy tone down his provocative, defiant and flamboyant behavior because he is possibly the first person in Billy's life who appears to care for the person beneath all the make-up and glitter.Yes, the movie is filled with a supporting cast of stereotypical characters, but stereotypes exist for a reason and the exceptional characters are significant because they stand apart. While Billy is purportedly the stellar example of an exceptional person, the most meaningful, influential and exceptional character was Flip Kelly.Great performance by Alex Lather, but Ian Nelson's acting was "exceptionally" good. Bette Midler lent her name to the cast listing but her appearance in the movie was largely insignificant.

pebsdad First off, any review that includes the director's name in the first line or paragraph of the review was clearly written by the movie's publicity department (see all previous reviews before this one).The movie is about a flamboyantly-dressed high school teen, the bullying he attracts (big surprise there), the kids who befriend him and the witless father figure and absent mother. ...and this movie is dreadful. I was looking forward to a "be your own self" coming of age movie and the trailer looked interesting but this one makes no sense and is as unrealistic as any story could be. None of the relationships are believable, you can't figure out why the school jock would befriend this over-the-top rich kid, and everyone else is a stock stereotype. Even Bette Midler's performance, whose casting also brought me to the movie, is ridiculously over acted. I'm not sure what they intended the film's title to refer to because to call the main character a Freak Show would be bullying in itself and to call the whole thing would be, well...more accurate.