Word: showness
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...after the best friends attend a freak show, steal a rare and deadly spider, and run away from home, they become mortal enemies and join the long dormant war between the good and evil vampire sects: the Vampires and the Vampaneze. Darren casts off his Sperry topsiders in exchange for a red leather jacket, joins the freak show, and meets the inevitable circus love interest. While Darren woos his half-monkey, half-frumpy high-school freakheart, Steve joins the dark side and starts killing former teachers. When their final dramatic confrontation takes place, Steve explains to Darren with comic seriousness...
Thankfully, the cinematography and set provide ample relief from the humdrum plot. A whirling and occasionally unfocused camera heightens the camp of the freak show, filled with the patchwork tents and car parts that form the wandering circus’ home. This cozy shantytown contrasts perfectly with the imposing black car of the evil Desmond “Mr.” Tiny (Michael Cerveris), whose license plate, “Des-Tiny,” is one of the film’s many ingratiating flourishes...
...above all others it is John C. Reilly who steals the show. Clad in a flowing red cape and tight showman pants, Reilly as Crepsley manages to control the flow of the plot without sullying himself in its clichés. In addition to supplying the quips that help to develop the comedic aspects of the film, Crepsley’s cynicism also provides alternative messages to the film’s more obvious moral points about diversity: as a vampire who has lived for 200 years, he philosophizes that “life may be meaningless, but death...
...light-hearted standout in the otherwise dark and dramatic vampire craze sparked by the heavy-handed moralizing of “Twilight.” Ignoring the soul-searching gaze of any teen who shuffles across the screen, Weitz’s film is just as wondrous a freak show as the circus that is its subject...
...then encouraged them to maintain the “merry” and ”whimsical” aspects of the piece when they played, moving closely between the musicians on stage and encouraging them to “show off and have...