A compassionate look at those with physical differences
“Chained for Life” (2019), which shares its title with a 1952 film about conjoined twins, is a movie about the making of a movie—a horror flick directed by a European wunderkind known only as Herr Director (Charlie Korsmo). The cast and crew gather at a former hospital to shoot this low-budget thriller.<br /><br />Herr Director has managed to hire up-and-coming actress Mabel Fairchild (Jess Weixler, “Teeth”). The plot centers on a German cosmetic surgeon who performs highly questionable procedures and a hospital full of people with physical aberrations, including a very tall man, a woman with severe burns, a pair of conjoined twins, a dwarf, and Rosenthal (Adam Pearson, “Under the Skin”), a man with neurofibromatosis, the same condition that afflicted Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man.<br /><br />The film starts slowly as the cast and crew gather, going through the routines of moving equipment, greeting each other, and checking out their accommodations. Once the film hits its stride, we seesaw between scenes of the crew working behind the camera and scenes of the movie being shot. Sometimes, director Aaron Schimberg takes us into long dream sequences. Other times, we think the actors are just talking among themselves only to learn that we’ve been watching a scene being shot. The result causes a combination of fascination and confusion as Schimberg keeps us guessing until the jarring revelation.<br /><br />The film is reminiscent of earlier movies in which physical disfigurement is the focus; Tod Browning’s “Freaks,” “Mask,” “The Man Without a Face,” and the silent melodrama “The Man Who Laughs” come to mind. Schimberg, however, doesn’t use these physical differences to terrify. As we watch the tedious process of moviemaking, Mabel, whose character is supposed to become romantically involved with Rosenthal’s, gets to know him as a friend and co-worker. She and the other “normal” people mingle with the extras with disabilities. The movie has an undercurrent of dark humor, but never at the expense of its human oddities.<br /><br />In “Freaks,” director Tod Browning spends the first half of the movie showing performers in a traveling circus as regular folk with unusual appearances and abilities. It’s the so-called normal people who are the true monsters. “Chained for Life” devotes considerable screen time to Rosenthal, who is a real character, not a mere representation. Though it offers a few tropes of the horror genre, “Chained for Life” is a sensitive movie that emphasizes similarities, rather than differences, between people of normal appearance and those who bear physical disfigurement.<br /><br />A prologue quotes critic Pauline Kael’s statement that actors and actresses tend to be more beautiful than the rest of us because people enjoy looking at pretty things, including and especially other people.<br /><br />Casting Pearson as Rosenthal is what distinguishes “Chained For Life.” He has a significant role, several lengthy scenes with a lot of dialogue, and he is a good actor despite being hampered by a face that doesn’t permit much range of expression. He delivers his lines naturally and conversationally, and is quite emotionally effective. Initially, his appearance is what we focus on, but Schimberg treats Rosenthal without fanfare. He arrives in a bus with the other extras and blends in, with most of his early scenes shot in long shot. By the time we see him in close-up, his appearance is not a shock.<br /><br />Schimberg provides a compassionate look at Rosenthal, the most dramatically disfigured among the cast. The film feels like a cross between artful indie and cult flick with its blend of an unusual screenplay, offbeat casting, and a flair for audience manipulation. The running time is only 91 minutes, but a few cuts could have been made to pep up the pace.<br /><br />Bonus materials on the unrated Blu-ray release include the director’s audio commentary; interviews with actors Jess Weixler, Adam Pearson, and Sari Lennick; deleted scene; and trailers.
The movie title "Chained For Life [Blu-ray]," available on Movies & TV, has received an average rating of 4.1 from 24 reviewers. 
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This title falls under the categories of Movies & TV, Featured Categories, Blu-ray and Drama. 
The additional details include the following in key-value format :
 {"MPAA rating": "NR (Not Rated)", "Product Dimensions": "0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.47 Ounces", "Media Format": "NTSC, Anamorphic, Subtitled", "Run time": "1 hour and 31 minutes", "Release date": "January 7, 2020", "Actors": "Jess Weixler, Adam Pearson, Charlie Korsmo", "Studio": "Kino Lorber", "Number of discs": "1"}

Here is a brief synopsis of the title : Chained For Life is one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2019, an absurdly funny and moving exploration of life on a movie set. Mabel (Jess Weixler, Teeth) and Rosenthal (Adam Pearson, Under the Skin) are the two stars of a pretentious art-horror film directed by an unhinged tyrant who may or may not be German (he goes by “Herr Director”). Mabel is playing a blind woman while Rosenthal, who has facial tumors caused by neurofibromatosis, is essentially playing a version of himself. Both their characters are part of a mad doctor’s plot to “cure” disabilities. But while Mabel can distance herself from her character, Rosenthal’s genetic disorder is the reason he was cast. Pulling from influences as disparate as Tod Browning’s Freaks, Robert Altman’s The Player, and David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, Aaron Schimberg’s Chained For Life is a brilliant meditation on beauty, disability, and the nature of performance..