Freak Show tells the moving, heartwarming, and hilarious story of Billy Bloom, a boldly confident, wildly eccentric teenager, who faces intolerance and persecution at his ultra conservative high school, and decides to fight back on behalf of all the misunderstood freaks of the world by running for the title of homecoming queen.
Could Billy Bloom be like everyone else if he wanted to? It would certainly save him a whole lot of trouble. But he has absolutely no desire to be like them. When others call him theatrical, he takes it as a compliment; when his classmates feel provoked by his drive to be different, it only motivates him further. ‘The nail that sticks out gets hammered down’, his father warns him. That does not deter Billy from deciding to run for homecoming queen. Somewhere in-between David Bowie, Lady Gaga, Freddy Mercury and Oscar Wilde, in the transgressive space of pop culture and dressed up as a high school comedy with wit, heart and a dazzling cast, Freak Show is about the violence of conformity and the power of self-determination.
Trudie Styler, wife of Sting, makes her feature film directorial debut with Freak Show. Bette Midler, AnnaSophia Robb, Laverne Cox and Abigail Breslin costar.
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