Also check out Grindhouse Roundup: Freeway (1996)
Written and Directed by: Matthew Bright
Starring: Natasha Lyonne, Vincent Gallo, David Alan Grier
Can you tell yet that I really like the Freeway movies? Although Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trickbaby is very much like its predecessor, it is also a wholly distinct story. In fact, it does a neat cinematic trick that you’ll see employed in grindhouse series quite often: there is a scene in Freeway 2 where the original film is actually playing on television. Is it a news story? A dramatic reenactment? The actual movie? Who knows? I love it.
“You and me are gonna go upstairs and kill everyone!”
One of the things I love about Freeway 2 specifically is that this movie does. not. give. a. fuck. Zero. Although the first one runs low on fucks for sure, I don’t think Confessions of a Trickbaby ever had any to begin with. This movie is absolutely bonkerballs. It’s got a teenage prostitute on the lam with a sexually motivated serial killer, Vincent Gallo doing more acting than he has probably ever done in his life, a really squinky plotline (it is pretty yucky and I’ll just say that Cyclona has a really troubling backstory that might help a little bit to explain how she ended up combining sexual thrills with serial killing), rampant bulimia, and Natasha Lyonne just doing her best while everyone around her continually refers to her (admittedly at her own prompting) nearly exclusively as White Girl. In short – it’s wild.
Similar to the prior film, Freeway 2 also retells – and I use that term very loosely – a fairy tale in an extremely bizarre fashion. In this case, the story of Hansel and Gretel. But there are also some interesting mythology elements to this one. There are some mentions of the god Jupiter, and Cyclona’s name is a presumably intentional nod (i.e. direct translation) to the Greek word for circle. And Cyclona does in fact bring about the closing of a particular circle. Interesting stuff, that.
“Bitch! I am a minister of death!”
Is this movie smart? You know, outwardly, I imagine most would say it isn’t. But I think it just might be. I think it is a Greek tragedy/triumph story stuffed into an ultraviolent, highly disturbing package.
If you find grindhouse storylines are typically distressing to you, definitely skip Freeway 2, because it does deal with some volatile stuff – CSA, eating disorders, heavily implied necrophilia, implied family annihilation, teen prostitution, armed robbery, murder, etc. But if you like women-escaping-prison-style grindhouse stories, this one just might work for you! This one is also available on Tubi.
