Bizarro

This is not a movie to be watched once. It won't make sense if you do not ponder the meaning beneath the images and scenes. It may look scattered and confusing with many plot lines interwoven through but you have to make sense of it. It is a subjective experience that must be savored more than once.

A French teenager gets a job at the burlesque club Bizarre in New York.

I had a vague idea of what to expect with this, that it would be arty, explicit and the explicitness would be largely gratuitous. It's certainly all that, and less.

A plot would have been nice. There is none, or nothing discernible at least. The teenager is really just a medium to show all the weird, pretentious stuff, as if it's a documentary and he's the historian.

It's all about weird stuff happening just for shock value sake and is totally devoid of any substance.

Avoid.

Though tempting for a review of a movie called Bizarre, the word "bizar" only partly covers it. It may be suitable to the extensive footage of several fetishist and kinky sexual acts in a Brooklyn cabaret called Bizarre. And to the last 15 minutes of this movie, when the story takes an extremely bizar turn. But between all that, there's an actually very affectionate love-story between two young guys Luka and Maurice. Had the makers restricted it to this, it would have suited me fine. Unfortunately they didn't. The graphically depicted sex-acts in the cabaret take way too much movie-time and seem to have no relation whatsoever with the story (or I've missed tons of metaphors). And as already said, the last 15 minutes the story totally derails.

Visually the movie impresses as a bit experimental, partly very dark and messy (the cabaret-scenes), partly all kinds of arty flashing waves and colorings. On the other hand there were many other scenes that were visually attractive and beautifully staged, like at the beach, on the rooftop, or the (uneasy but tender) love scenes between Maurice and Luka.

Maurice is played by French actor Pierre Prieur, he's cute as a puppy, but his character is so subdued and silent that he doesn't get much chance to shine. It was by the way funny how at numerous times the camera, during pleasantly long takes, followed him from behind when he walked briskly along the sidewalks of the city, maybe the cameraman and the director were as impressed as I was with the sexy way in which Prieur walked. Adrian James as Luka not only has a fascinating androgynous appearance with an uncommon and beautiful face, he played the part of this complex character impressively.

The title is derived from Bar Bizarre in Brooklyn, a home for fetish performances that take place on stage for all to see! Homeless French teenager, Maurice, seems to be on the run. As luck has it, the female owners of Bizarre take Maurice in, creating a new and strange path in his life. What transpires is almost reminiscent of the Warhol / Morrissey films, FLESH (1968), TRASH (1970) and HEAT (1972), but with less talk and more visual aid in telling the tale. The standout in this curious piece is the stage performers of Bar Bizarre, and how strange indeed. As for the rest, you watch in wonder and get taken in with Maurice's affection with the feminine anorexia barman, Luka (stunning performance and not to be seen in anything else at the moment).

The title tells it all: bizarre, & random. One thing is for a movie to be odd or bizarre, and a completely different one is for a movie to have a rushed, unexplained 20-minute ending.