So this was a TV movie? I thought this was some kind of big deal. I keep wanting to read the title on the poster as "Fyayed" because I happen to know cyrilic...
A movie that few people seem to really understand, not even its own screenwriter.
"Fred: The Movie" is a curiosity. I think a lot of us could see coming this gradual blurring of the lines between internet media and television media and this I believe was the first of a series of misguided features in which internet personalities (or at least their creations) found themselves with the backing of some fairly big companies.
I had no familiarity with Fred except as this internet thing a lot of other internet personalities really hated. I saw "Ihateeverything" tear this movie to shreds and yesterday I just happened to want something disposable I could watch for 10 minutes.
This pleasantly surprised me though. No masterpiece but there is something here if you look closely. No, I'm not trying to make a joke good review like so many people do for Tantacolino but I really think you could do so much worse than this very singular experience.
Outwardly very goofy or just like anything else you expect to find on Nickelodeon. But behind the apparent attempts at laughs we have a very dark movie about a youthful victim of astonishing emotional neglect. Fred is a 15 year old boy who really wants nothing more than love. He wants his caustic, nap addicted (wink wink) mother to take an interest in him. He has very little grip on the distinction between fantasy and reality as he delves into delusions involving the amazing John Cena as an imaginary father figure (he does an amazing job) and the a popular girl reciprocating his feelings.
Fred is a creepy but admirably veiled depiction of a boy who could so grow up to be one of those pseudo-unselfsh rapists who genuinely think someone is their girlfriend when they're not. People have called the movie out for its dark undertones but these are its greatest strengths. There could easily be another movie just like this but marketed as a horror movie and just beat you over the head with its concept, but "Fred: The Movie" is subtle enough that people genuinely treat it like the kids' comedy it superficially is.
Now please let me say that I don't really believe that the people behind this really see the movie the way I see it. I am very willing to believe it was some kind of cash grab by cigar guzzling executives whose only idea of what the kids are into are what their researchers have told them.
But a movie is more than its author intends it to be, it gives us a glimpse at our own world if we're willing to let it.
"Fred" is at its best an unpredictable, free-wheeling odyssey that delightfully plays with the absurd. But like I said, not even the guy who wrote this really seems to understand the layered character study we have here and ultimately the movie does not go the places it should go. It neither becomes the blood bath it could have been nor the life affirming story of an outsider finding a genuine human relationship (they could have done so much more with Birtha, the oddball neighbour who remind be of that chick from Napoleon Bonaparte).
My heart bleeds for Fred. I want to cuddle him and let him know he is loved indeed.
So, yes, not a masterpiece and it can be more than a little painful though I would say that is, not the point, but you're best watching strategy. To gain an enjoyment that is not quite ironic, simply alternative to what the author thought they were writing. If you open yourself to this movie you might find it is the unique artistic experience you've been craving. I mean it: a cosmetic change in its handling and we find ourselves asking "is he breaking the 4th wall when he talks to us, or is he just lonely?"
With all the trashy and generic movies out there, I can udnerstand how this movie might have a bad reputation, but it should not be in the bottom 100.
A movie that few people seem to really understand, not even its own screenwriter.
"Fred: The Movie" is a curiosity. I think a lot of us could see coming this gradual blurring of the lines between internet media and television media and this I believe was the first of a series of misguided features in which internet personalities (or at least their creations) found themselves with the backing of some fairly big companies.
I had no familiarity with Fred except as this internet thing a lot of other internet personalities really hated. I saw "Ihateeverything" tear this movie to shreds and yesterday I just happened to want something disposable I could watch for 10 minutes.
This pleasantly surprised me though. No masterpiece but there is something here if you look closely. No, I'm not trying to make a joke good review like so many people do for Tantacolino but I really think you could do so much worse than this very singular experience.
Outwardly very goofy or just like anything else you expect to find on Nickelodeon. But behind the apparent attempts at laughs we have a very dark movie about a youthful victim of astonishing emotional neglect. Fred is a 15 year old boy who really wants nothing more than love. He wants his caustic, nap addicted (wink wink) mother to take an interest in him. He has very little grip on the distinction between fantasy and reality as he delves into delusions involving the amazing John Cena as an imaginary father figure (he does an amazing job) and the a popular girl reciprocating his feelings.
Fred is a creepy but admirably veiled depiction of a boy who could so grow up to be one of those pseudo-unselfsh rapists who genuinely think someone is their girlfriend when they're not. People have called the movie out for its dark undertones but these are its greatest strengths. There could easily be another movie just like this but marketed as a horror movie and just beat you over the head with its concept, but "Fred: The Movie" is subtle enough that people genuinely treat it like the kids' comedy it superficially is.
Now please let me say that I don't really believe that the people behind this really see the movie the way I see it. I am very willing to believe it was some kind of cash grab by cigar guzzling executives whose only idea of what the kids are into are what their researchers have told them.
But a movie is more than its author intends it to be, it gives us a glimpse at our own world if we're willing to let it.
"Fred" is at its best an unpredictable, free-wheeling odyssey that delightfully plays with the absurd. But like I said, not even the guy who wrote this really seems to understand the layered character study we have here and ultimately the movie does not go the places it should go. It neither becomes the blood bath it could have been nor the life affirming story of an outsider finding a genuine human relationship (they could have done so much more with Birtha, the oddball neighbour who remind be of that chick from Napoleon Bonaparte).
My heart bleeds for Fred. I want to cuddle him and let him know he is loved indeed.
So, yes, not a masterpiece and it can be more than a little painful though I would say that is, not the point, but you're best watching strategy. To gain an enjoyment that is not quite ironic, simply alternative to what the author thought they were writing. If you open yourself to this movie you might find it is the unique artistic experience you've been craving. I mean it: a cosmetic change in its handling and we find ourselves asking "is he breaking the 4th wall when he talks to us, or is he just lonely?"
With all the trashy and generic movies out there, I can udnerstand how this movie might have a bad reputation, but it should not be in the bottom 100.