The film is more interesting as a relic of a bygone era than a coherent theatrical work. Bobby is an ex-pusher that has settled in an urban hippie commune, circa 1970, struggling to survive with a rag-tag bunch that appear bored most of the time but sometimes take to the streets to protest ("Peace, Luv, not War!" etc.), conduct anti-war meetings in a city park, get busted by cops, engage in some obnoxious panhandling ("This is our work"), get stoned and revel in nude dancing. As a film, GHETTO FREAKS (a.k.a, SIGN OF AQUARIUS, LOVE COMMUNE) is no more consequential than the lives of these "lost soul"-type hippies, and unreels a plot-less scenario that mostly centers around Bobby, his relationships with the commune members and his attempt to get free of his violent gangster past.
Director Emery is compassionate to the late-60s youth protest ethic, but there is hardly any story to justify up the running time. Although these kids, including Bobby, are shown as rebels with a real cause (anti-Vietnam War) they are also cynically portrayed as having no future. Emery's semi-documentary shooting style is a plus, but his characters are underdeveloped or unsympathetic (Bobby being the main culprit here), and the dialogue is mostly aimless and seems improvised. An overlong orgy scene, featuring enough nudity to warrant the film's original X-rating from the MPAA, is symptomatic of how most scenes tend to drag on with little import, and with histrionics that take place in a vacuum because we never get to know the characters well enough.
Two interesting scenes hint at the movie's undeveloped potential: When furious parents interrupt the commune's antics to try to remove their hippie daughter; and a street protest in which a middle-class working stiff argues uselessly with the self-absorbed hippies.
