Year:  2022

Director:  Chicory Wees

Release:  14 July and 16 July, 2023

Running time: 95 minutes

Worth: $14.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Cast:
Jim Rose, the Amazing Mr Lifto, Matt ‘The Tube’ Crowley, The Enigma, Bebe the Circus Queen

Intro:
... interesting and entertaining, with plenty of archival ‘90s footage.

A regular night at a Jim Rose Circus performance would usually see at least one member of the audience faint. Accordingly, this documentary begins with a warning to those with heart conditions or sensitive constitutions…

Step right up, folks – here’s the electrifying Mr Lifto and his amazing feats, which include hanging steam irons on his dick. Watch the Torture King eat fire and swallow swords. Experience the Enigma – the incredible illustrated man who eats live slugs. And kingpin Jim Rose himself, whose lovely wife, Bebe, pushes her foot into the back of his head as he lies on the floor, his face squashed against broken glass.

It’s extreme, but it’s also quite amusing and done with a sense of fun, which no doubt accounted for the troupe’s extraordinary success – aided by publicity-savvy Rose.

The first part of this documentary is interesting and entertaining, with plenty of archival ‘90s footage. You may watch it with a smile, which will morph into a grimace and back again. It covers the formation of the sideshow crew, how they honed their act, and how they found themselves in the right place, at the right time, on the circus-themed Lollapalooza tour of 1992. They were the darlings of the grunge set and were formed in the same city that grunge was conceived in – Seattle. Kurt Cobain even went to their first show.

But before long, the novelty of the acts wears off a little, and the doco turns into a whinge-fest, with former troupe members describing Rose as a controlling and manipulative micro-manager. Justified or not, the documentary goes over and over Rose’s character flaws, when the more interesting question about what makes the people in this troupe tick, isn’t looked at. Why would someone skewer themselves? Or stick tubes down their nose into their stomach? Or eat slugs?

Apart from Rose – who’s interviewed in the present day along with the rest of the crew – they’re actually quite a lovable bunch of misfits, who saw their work as a form of art, reviving the lost sideshows of America. Rose, they say, was in it for the money.

Circus of the Scars – which has picked up a few awards on the festival circuit – has quite a bit going for it, but it would have been a far stronger film if about 30 minutes worth of footage was left on the cutting room floor, or a different tact taken to bring it to feature length.

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