‘Freelance’ Review: A Hybrid Found Footage Nightmare
Being a freelancer in any capacity is a living nightmare. Whether you’re chasing invoices or trying to find enough assignments to pay this month’s rent, the freedom freelancing affords you does have its exhausting downsides. It’s a way of life that can often lead to work taken out of desperation in the name of achieving financial stability. That very desperation is at the center of director John Balazs and writer Mike Gerbino’s new film Freelance.
The new cyber-thriller follows freelance video editor Katie (Nicole Pastor) constantly on the lookout for her next paycheck. But, after recently editing a series of porno videos to make rent, her reputation is tarnished in local circles and jobs start drying up. Katie is months behind on rent and doesn’t even have enough cash to get a latte from the local coffee shop. She resorts to going on dates with a tolerable Guy (Stephen Degenaro) to get free dinners. She’s a desperate woman but doesn’t want to give up on her dreams of being an editor.
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Of course, just when Katie is at her most desperate, she gets a message from a mysterious new client, offering her $1000 to edit one video. She’s suspicious, but takes the job anyway. A job’s a job, right? The footage arrives on her doorstep and what she finds looks quite similar to a snuff film. She pushes those thoughts out of her mind, convincing herself it’s just really good practical effects. The footage is edited, music is added, and Katie exports the final file to send off to her faceless client. Payment is received and it could just end there.
But, as we all know, it doesn’t end there. Katie continues to take their jobs as her bills pile up and things only seem to get worse in her life with every passing day. The rest of Freelance follows a relatively predictable set of narrative beats, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. While it seems that Katie could only meet an awful feat, Balazs has enough tricks up his sleeve to keep the film’s final act engaging, entertaining, and surprising.
Pastor’s performance helps anchor Freelance and gives you a reason to truly care about Katie, who on the surface is a dirtbag girlie with a rough exterior but really she’s driven by a desperate desire to just survive. This is a character that could easily fall into parody, a stiff rendition of an unlikeable woman. But between a strong script and an exceptional actor, Katie is complex, sympathetic, and infuriating all in the same breath. She’s the kind of character I love to see in contemporary genre cinema: gross girls whole go against expectations of how women and femmes are supposed to behave.
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Gerbino’s script and Balazs’ direction capture the desperation of freelancing almost too well, causing my breath to hitch in my throat more than once just due to my own ability to relate to Katie’s struggles. That reality established in the film’s first act further grounds Freelance and makes it a bit easier to understand Katie’s desperation when it comes to taking such a seemingly ridiculous offer.
Just as Katie’s character could easily become stiff and generic, the snuff footage itself could look obviously fake and laughable. But, Balazs makes sure to film segments that have the cursed feeling of a snuff film (kids who grew up on Rotten.com will know that feeling all too well). While they make up a small amount of screen time, they’re also the crux of the effectiveness of the film; yes this is a fictional film, but you still want the audience to feel a sense of danger with each project Katie is delivered. This is a prime example of how found footage elements used strategically in narrative horror only further elevate the film’s scares.
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The biggest issue with Freelance is that it begins to feel repetitive in the second act. It follows a pattern that repeats one time too many and drags the pacing down not quite to a halt. Patience is rewarded with a wild third act, but Katie’s descent into cyber hell becomes a bit redundant as she continues to take these risky (to say the least) assignments.
Thanks to a stellar performance from Pastor and a unique slant on the ethically dubious computer guy trope, Freelance is an early surprise for 2025. If you’re looking for something new that hasn’t graced the tops of every streaming chart, check out Freelance. And beware of strange messages that seem too good to be true…
Freelance is out now on digital and VOD.
Summary
Thanks to a stellar performance from Nicole Pastor and a unique slant on genre tropes, Freelance is an early surprise for 2025.
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