Freaky Tales - Movie Review

The Movie: Freaky Tales

The Director: Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden

The Cast: Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Normani, Dominique Thorne, Jack Champion, and Tom Hanks

The Story: Set in 1987 Oakland, Freaky Tales is a multi-track mixtape of colorful characters — an NBA star, a corrupt cop, a female rap duo, teen punks, neo-Nazis, and a debt collector — on a collision course in a fever dream of showdowns and battles.

The Rating: 8 / 10

The Review: 

Where the heck did this movie come from and why is it not getting a major theatrical push by one of the big studios! Seriously, this movie kicks major ass and it's all kinds of fun. I do understand that what makes it special also kind of sidelines it from being something that would be fit for mainstream marketing although this is also exactly the type of movie that should be getting pushed out there. It's creative, it's different, it's fearless, it's violent, it's a throwback, and it's filled with great performances across the board.

One way I can describe this movie would be like if Quentin Tarantino made a semi-comedic version of his own style of movie making but not full blown parody. It has the same retro feel that pays homage to way too many films and genres for me to ever try to name or dive in to and it's pretty clear that the writing and directing team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck probably both spent many late nights watching a lot of really obscure grindhouse type films.

This movie is also a tribute to 1980's Oakland and the culture clash that fueled both creativity and a lot of volatility, especially when throwing in the added dynamics of corruption and greed in the top levels of law enforcement. Having Bay Area legends like Too Short and Marshawn Lynch alongside Hollywood legends like Pedro Pascal and Tom Hanks was pure genius and I loved how both the love of hip hop and movies is on full display. If you know me, then you know this is right in my wheelhouse when it comes to entertainment and culture.

This also brings me back to the how did they pull all of this off aspect of my thoughts on the film. I mean, this is movie just screams low budget indie film from every angle and then you suddenly have Tom Hanks in a brief cameo role that he clearly took as seriously as any of his Oscar calibre feature lenght performances. I could watch him and Pascal talk movies for hours on end and it would never get old. Can we get that movie next, please? Seriously, the entire cast is great in this movie and you can really tell that everyone involved had a lot of fun being a part of the process.

As I mentioned, the story is very much deep rooted in the 80's and so the look and feel of the film plays right along and the whole thing feels like you just popped in a VHS tape or you stumbled across it on some late night cable channel that you didn't even know existed. The movie is split into multiple segments although everything pieces together and all the characters populate the same general spaces. Of course, by the end, it all comes together in a climactic final act that dives deep into the worlds of blaxploitation, science fiction, and martial arts and culminates in one of the most entertaining and satisfying movie experiences I've had in a while.