I remember watching low-rent, cheesy 1980s on cable growing up, which was over the style but light on plot or character development. The back-to-back vignettes felt like changing the channels, watching bits of one movie, and moving on to something else. Making movies from the poignant indie dramas like Sugar and blockbusters like Captain Marvel, Anna Boden, and Ryan Fleck are hard to pin down, and that’s a good thing which made them a good fit for Freaky Tales, a satisfying action drama opening in theaters starring Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, and Jay Ellis.
Featuring a variety of characters like an NBA star, a corrupt cop, a female rap duo, teenage punks, neo-Nazis, and a debt collector, all fit their part in 1987 Oakland, CA, in this vibrantly stylized movie that blends various genres of action comedy drama. At times, Freaky Tales is nostalgic in its setting and place in time but takes audiences to unexpected places. It nails the details of their era. The costumes and attitude are on point. Retelling the dream with animated stick figures was amusing. There’s as much fun on the screen as possible.
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Writer-director duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have a knack for this. Still, I wasn’t sure how these vignettes connected beyond Pedro Pascal, even if it makes a few attempts to make sure they aren’t entirely random, if not other than a vibe. It is reminiscent of Pulp Fiction, in storytelling style, even as it wears its fun-loving 80s heart on its sleeve and references many movies. The collision course street fight with battling Nazis with violent “splatterific” effects that are unreal but perfect comic timing. All over the place, I had a good time with the fun cameos that made me smile.
Freaky Tales features a lot of creativity and fun but not a cohesive plot, even in the context of each anthology. The plot I had a hard time keeping up does a disservice to the work on screen. I wanted to like this more but had a good enough time, especially during the second half. It has the potential for cult status when people eventually discover it.
Freaky Tales is now playing in theaters nationwide.
