FREAKS: YOU'RE ONE OF US
Germany, 2020, 92 minutes, Colour.
Cornelia Groschel, Tim Oliver Shultz, Wotan Wilke Mohring, Nina Kunzedorf, Frederic Linkemann, Finnlay Berger.
Directed by Felix Binder.
The title sounds like something from a comic strip and, there are quite some references to comicstrips. This is a German film, but it could have been a story from anywhere.
The film opens with a desk thrown through a cement/ brick wall and a little girl sitting inside the apartment, fearful, and a doctor coming to treat her. This is Wendy. The film then cuts to the present day, Wendy married, a devoted husband, a young son, a comfortable home although there is a threat that they will be evicted. The husband is a security guard. Wendy has been working for some years at a diner linked with a service station.
So far, so ordinary. We see that Wendy is on medication and that she has interviews with the doctor from her childhood. She is rather meek in her work at the diner, wanting a raise but dominated by her bossy boss. There is a reticent young man also working there, Elmar. On the way home Wendy is taunted by drunken men, the young son is bullied by the local kids, Wendy is rather meek and retiring. However, she does encounter a vagrant looking for chicken scraps in the rubbish – he tells her that she is “one of us�, a select group of people with superior powers. He demonstrates this rather dramatically and, ultimately, Wendy flushes the tablets down the sink and begins to assert herself.
She discovers that she does have superpowers, extraordinary strength.
The basic idea of this story is very similar to the tales of the X-Men?, only much lower key and taking place in the suburbs. In fact, the film is like a pop-allegory about discovering one’s inner self, one’s inner strengths, acknowledging putdowns, authorities trying to control rather than to understand and encourage.
Which means that we see Wendy in action, powerful assertion towards the drunken men, the bully kids, the boss.
Just as there was Magneto in the X-Men? stories, here we have the transformation of Elmer, nerdish, no ambition, listening to Wendy, discovering his power, electric power. However, he has disappointed his ambitious father, is an avid reader of comics, buys his own superpower costume, but turns to evil.
While there are stunts and special effects, they are comparatively quiet compared with those in the familiar blockbusters. But, the moral is the same. And there is a teaser at the end of all the credits which should not be missed!
1. The title? The focus on the freaks, superpowers, specially chosen, unknown, medically suppressed? Discovering community?
2. The German setting, suburbia, homes, diners, the streets, ordinary suburban situations? The musical score?
3. Variation on an X-Men? scenario? More modest? Pop-analogy for society, the gifted, to 3 being suppressed and unwelcome? Finding bonding? To be heroes? To better the world? Yet also villains?
4. The prologue Wendy and the hole in the wall? The later flashback showing it? Her mother and concern? Dr Stern? Taking charge of Wendy?
5. Wendy, adult, married, her son, family life, the lifestyle, her husband in security? Her son bullied? Her working at the diner? Her boss and domination? Elmar and his work? Wendy looked down on, the leering men calling after her, the boys bullying her son, the driver parked in the disabled zone? Problems at home, evictions, money, her trying to get a raise, the boss’s hostility?
6. The encounter with Marek, vagrant, begging for food scraps, being turned away by the boss? Walking with Wendy? The strange conversation? The powers? His falling off the bridge, run over, yet revived? His explanations to Wendy, his accommodation in the vast arena?
7. The special people, Wendy taking tablets, Dr Stern increasing them, their being subjugated? Her asserting herself, bending the tray, lifting the boss, fighting the obnoxious men, smashing the bicycles of the boys? Shifting the car? Her trying to understand herself?
8. Elmar, nerd, working at the diner, no ambitions, his strong father objecting, his girlfriend and her presence? Elmar and Wendy, talking of the superpowers, Elmar discovering his electric powers, his name? His suit? Turning up? Advances on Wendy and her repelling him? His sad story about his father hugging him, the embrace and his crushing him?
9. Difficulties at home, Wendy and her husband, the boy knowing his mother’s powers? Her getting the money from the bank? The pool filling with water? The party with the children? Elmar and his turning up, evicted?
10. Wendy, a sense of responsibility, working with Marek? The challenge for the Freaks?
11. The buildup to a climax, Elmar and his electric powers, destructive? Wendy, the bonding with her husband, with her son? Marek, the police, his being shot? The presence of Dr Stern and her words to subdue the group? Elmar and his death?
12. The future – and the post-credits sequence of Wendy’s son and his superpower of elevating his opponents?
