Freaked

In 44 years of life, over 1400 movies watched, I have never seen a movie like Freaked. Imagine the sensibilities of a 90’s Nickelodeon comedy; weird off-kilter camera angles, loud and abrasive, aggressively in your face. Now have John Kricfalusi and David Lynch co-write the script, and have Tim Burton and Tom Green direct it. And have MTV finance the whole thing. And that’s still only half as weird as Freaked. You might laugh. You might be repulsed. You might be entertained, and you might find it has killed off half your brain cells. It will have an effect on you, but it is impossible to guess what. You WILL be confused and mystified and you may end up questioning your life choices. But it will be unlike any other movie you’ve ever seen. Is it good? Is it bad? This movie transcends concepts like those. It stands outside them. It mocks them. Do I recommend it? As a sort of exercise in cinematic avant-garde art project, sure, it is fascinating. You will never be bored, and you will never see some of the jokes coming. It’s like if LSD were a movie. But in terms of quality, this movie cannot be graded like that. Though I gave it 2 1/2 stars, that’s only because Letterboxd doesn’t allow ratings with question marks or Möbius strips. I don’t know what to think about it. I don’t know that I ever will.