The dynamic directing duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck return to the Sundance Film Festival with their latest collaboration, the strange, wild sci fi/action/thriller/comedy/drama, Freaky Tales.
Set firmly in the middle of Ryan Fleck’s childhood — 1987 Oakland, California, to be exact — the self-proclaimed freaky tales are four stories that intertwine and connect in both foreseeable and unexpected ways. Three pierced and tattooed friends exit a movie theater, having just watched Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys. As they enthusiastically discuss that film’s ending, a truckload of Nazi skinheads rolls up. They trade barbs with some nearby young women, exchange nasty looks with the three friends (who then flip them off), and drive off. This introduction leads down a path into Oakland’s punk scene, specifically to an underground club with live music, an enthusiastic audience, and a commitment to eschew violence and alcohol.
But with Nazis on the prowl and looking for a fight, their anti-violence stance is threatened.
The nearby young women from the movie theater are Barbie (Dominique Thorn) and Entice (Normani), aspiring rap artists whose duo act Danger Zone is recruited into a rap battle with local icon Too $hort (Symba). Before they can even make it to the club, though, their peaceful day in a Barbie-pink ice cream shop is interrupted by a menacing police officer (Ben Mendelsohn). The talented and driven women can’t seem to make it through an hour without being harassed by someone, but they persist.
Clint (Pedro Pascal) is an enforcer. A collector. He goes after people with debts to settle, and he’s good at it, but he’s ready to retire and build his family. But of course, there’s always one more job.
Freaky Tales isn’t all gloom and darkness. It is funny and sweet, hopeful, and satisfying. And it celebrates other elements of Oakland’s brushes with greatness too. The entire film takes place over a few days, coinciding with the 1987 NBA Western Conference Semi-Finals in which Oakland’s Golden State Warriors lost four games to one against the Los Angeles Lakers in their golden age. There was one bright spot for the Warriors in that series involving Sleepy Floyd, whose charisma shines through a strong performance by Jay Ellis. This is one of those plot points we don’t want to spoil, but it is clear this particular event made a lasting impact on the boy who would grow up to be director Ryan Fleck.
To go any further in explaining exactly what this movie is would potentially ruin so many surprises and turns. Freaky Tales is a weird and entertaining collection of real and imagined stories, tales of underdogs rising up. It is violent and bloody, channeling filmmakers like Kurosawa, Tarantino, and Scorsese, blended with a love for comic book-style fighting and cartoonish brutality.
It is also unapologetic about its love for Oakland, the birthplace of the Black Panthers, about social justice and the importance of fighting back. When one character wonders how, in 1987, there are still Nazis, we in the audience can only sigh sadly about what she will see in the next 40 years.
This is also very much a movie for cinephiles, with endless references to movies and filmmakers, an exuberant celebration of the stories that tie us all together. Boden and Fleck, who also penned the script, manage to do this in ways that feel natural and unforced. If it’s not a love letter to cinema, it is at least a thoughtfully written postcard.
Freaky Tales is absolutely not going to be a movie for everyone. But it will surely find its passionate and enthusiastic fans. I am happy to be one of them.