FREAKY TALES (2024)

In the third vignette of Freaky Tales, a 1980s-set hyperlink film set in Oakland, California, a debt collector visits a video store to collect from a gambler in a secret back room. Clint (Pedro Pascal), the debt collector hoping this is his last job, is also tasked with renting some videos for his pregnant partner. The video store, a haven for cinephiles squarely in the past, is adorned with neon signs, a massive poster of Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon (1973), and rows of physical media we can’t find anywhere nowadays except in underfunded libraries or the occasional small businesses trying to survive.

Clint is cornered by the shop’s owner, Hank (Tom Hanks), who forces him into a conversation about the five greatest underdog films. Hanks, in a memorable cameo, rattles off reverence for films like Dirty Dozen (1967) and an unnamed film that critic Roger Ebert said “makes you feel about as good as any film in a long time” (most likely referring to 1979’s Breaking Away). This nostalgia-fuelled scene that squarely outlines the overarching theme is representative of Freaky Tales as a whole: relying on the fervent memories of the past and its committed cast to make something bordering on imitation, but still a fun flick.

Written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Freaky Tales follows four interconnected stories set in Oakland, California, in May 1987. Based on Fleck’s memories of growing up in the Bay Area, the film is filled with reverence to the music, films, and history that defined the period.

In Chapter 1, Lucid (Jack Champion) and Tina (Ji-young Yoo), two young friends with a deep sense of belonging at their local grunge bar, navigate love and community while experiencing violence at the hands of skinhead Nazis. Chapter 2 follows a burgeoning rap duo, Entice (Normai) and Barbie (Dominique Thorne), invited to rap battle with the legendary Too $hort. Beyond the video shop of Chapter 3, Clint comes to terms with giving up his dark past for his partner, Grace (Natalia Dominguez), while owing a debt to a mysterious man. The final chapter features a fictionalised version of Golden State Warriors point guard Eric “Sleepy” Floyd (portrayed by Jay Ellis) on the night of his record-breaking 29 points in the fourth quarter of the Western Conference semifinals against the Los Angeles Lakers.  Meanwhile, a white supremacist gang plans to rob the homes of the Warriors team.

Hyperlink films are gutsy endeavours, running the risk of undermining themselves when one vignette outshines the others. What Freaky Tales gets right is in forming the right of each story to exist. The latter two chapters may be the strongest, but enough is going on in each story to make them stories worth being told.

Each chapter wears its influences heavily on its sleeve. The rap battles of 8 Mile (2002), the community fighting of The Warriors (1979), and, very distinctly, the twisting of real-life events of Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood (2019), all feature heavily in forming the vignettes. A little too much imitation can ruin the whole film, but Fleck and Boden do well to just barely make each story feel unique. Perhaps the film’s greatest strength in achieving this is the performances of the cast.

The highest billed trio of the film, Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us), Jay Ellis (Top Gun: Maverick), and long-time Fleck and Boden collaborator Ben Mendelsohn (To Catch a Killer), earn their spots as the highlights of the film. Every time Pascal’s on the screen, he outshines the others with his dark brooding and effortless charisma. Mendelsohn, while he sometimes can’t avoid his Australian accent, hops in and out of each chapter as a sleazy detective causing pain wherever he goes. And Ellis gets to be not only an icon of the Oakland basketball world but also a badass martial artist. His Psyoptics Academy, which promises to free your mind and provide peace and strength, plays a major role throughout the whole film.

All the other featured cast members do a fantastic job, elevating a lacklustre screenplay to new heights. Normani and Dominique Thorne have inescapable chemistry as rappers and as friends. Jack Champion and Ji-young Yoo have the hardest job of being the first players in the picture, but they exceed expectations, setting the tone of connection and nostalgic reverence that follows the whole film. Even the actors that have the hard job of portraying Nazis don’t hold anything back. Most notable is Angus Cloud (Euphoria) who plays one of the Nazis robbing the Warriors’ homes in his final onscreen performance since his passing. Freaky Tales is also bolstered by fun cameos from the aforementioned Tom Hanks, Marshawn Lynch as a bus driver for two seconds, and Too $hort and Sleepy Floyd in brief moments. Without the cast giving it their all, Freaky Tales wouldn’t work quite so well.

Boden and Fleck enhance their underwritten script with their excellent work behind the camera. Freaky Tales’ script relies on transparent conversations to highlight the thematic and mostly weak moments to get each to work together. But the clear love for the era from Boden and Fleck gives the film a kinetic energy that is hard to avoid. Whether the film had budget restrictions or copyright issues, the directors utilise some clever tricks to add some unique depth to its style, namely a fun animated sequence to showcase Sleepy Floyd’s fourth quarter heroics. As the film states, his 29 points in one playoff quarter is a record yet to be broken. No small detail is spared to make Freaky Tales a beautiful document of the past.

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s latest feature film came six years ago when they made their entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Captain Marvel (2019). That action pic, itself dripping with 1990s callbacks, was very hindered by a clear direction the studio was taking with those films. In Freaky Tales, Boden and Fleck get to jump away from the Hollywood machine and make a passion project, using their cinematic influences to make a fun romp into ’80s-fuelled memories and fears. While it may make you “feel as good as any film in a long time” as Tom Hanks recalls, Freaky Tales, even with its heavy impersonations, is a rather fresh type of film on the big screen, one big studios don’t give us that often. And that makes me feel pretty good.

USA • CANADA | 2024 | 107 MINUTES | 2.39:1 • 4:3 | COLOUR | ENGLISH

Cast & Crew

writers & directors: Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck.
starring: Pedro Pascal, Jay Ellis, Ben Mendelsohn, Normani, Dominique Thorne, Jack Champion, Ji-young Yoo, Angus Cloud, Natalia Dominguez, Keir Gilchrist, Jordan Gomes, Sleepy Floyd, Too $hort, & Tom Hanks.