Cool punks, aspiring rappers, a grieving enforcer, and a badass NBA player meet their supernatural fates against Nazis and crooked cops in 1987 Oakland, California in filmmaking duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Freaky Tales. The directors return to their hometown roots in a wild anthology that literally oozes with green creativity but suffers from sizable plot failures. There’s no denying the film’s entertainment value. Tom Hanks has a truly memorable cameo and fans of the legendary rapper Too $hort will also get a kick out of his portrayal.
Freaky Tales is told in four chapters with an opening card and commercial that frames what’s to come. A green glow was seen all over 1987 Oakland with residents believing it was responsible for the bizarre, violent events that wracked the city over several days. The screen’s aspect ratio then changes to the old-school, 4:3 TV format, with Golden State Warriors point guard Eric “Sleepy” Floyd (Jay Ellis) praising the virtues of “Psytopics,” a program that channels your inner “life force.”
A Battle for Oakland
- Interesting ensemble characters in a wild narrative.
- Creative filmmaking with animation and changes in aspect ratio.
- Tom Hanks has a truly memorable cameo.
- The supernatural elements aren’t explained.
- Predictable villains have no depth.
We’re first introduced to two punk and ska enthusiasts, Tina (Ji-young Yoo) and Lucid (Jack Champion), coming out of a theater showing The Lost Boys. They hilariously ask the key question everyone has about the classic movie. Tina and Lucid head to a concert for a night, but run into a gang of racist Nazis with other plans for the show.
Chapter two has two ice cream clerks and wannabe rappers, Normani (Entice) and Barbie (Dominique Thorne), also leaving The Lost Boys with the same question. They meet a crude and sexist cop (Ben Mendelsohn) at work who wants more than what they’re scooping. Meanwhile, in the third chapter, Clint (Pedro Pascal) leaves his pregnant girlfriend in the car to shake down a gambler betting on an illegal poker game inside a video store. All of these characters repeatedly cross paths until the climactic fourth chapter where Sleepy Floyd has bloody business to settle after a clutch game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
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Boden and Fleck (It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Captain Marvel) infuse the film with cool animation that pops up for different purposes. Lucid crushing on Tina, but afraid to admit his feelings, gets a dose of onscreen animated honesty that will have you in stitches. This methodology remains throughout as Boden and Fleck insert the mystical green substance at pivotal moments in the story. The rub being that it gives power to the underdogs to take vengeance and deliver a brutal comeuppance when necessary. We can only assume this is the fuel that powers “Psytopics,” which is constantly referred to but never explained.
The Green-Lit Underdogs of ‘Freaky Tales’
Let’s start with the exposition that makes sense. The ensemble protagonists each have a desire to accomplish something, but have a formidable obstacle in the way. They discover their better selves once turbocharged by the green energy. This can be cute and sweet, like Tina and Lucid’s romance; uplifting, as Entice and Barbie get their rap groove on; and sadly sobering, when Clint has to face his past demons and forge a new path ahead, and Sleepy Floyd takes ugly matters into his own hands. Boden and Fleck’s script takes a page from Quentin Tarantino as unique characters are intertwined with destiny à la Four Rooms and Pulp Fiction.
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My primary problem is that the green instigator is never explained. Scenes take bonkers turns due to its influence, but we are left completely in the dark about its origins. Boden and Fleck use it as the catalyst in their plot with zero closure. That’s frustrating because crazy crap goes down, and the audience is utterly clueless about why it’s happening. Are there aliens pulling the strings (the same ones responsible for the green glow in 1984’s Repo Man)? Why don’t the bad guys get the benefit of green goodness?
You never know, because the directors believe the teasing and mystery elements make up for a cohesive explanation. This is especially weird at the conclusion of Entice and Barbie’s vignette. Leaving all questions and no answers isn’t rewarding for the commercial audience, and I didn’t want to play a guessing game about the green goo.
Strange Times in Oakland
Freaky Tales gets downright vicious with a mix of melee fight scenes and close combat that will get your adrenaline pumping. Mendelsohn, in his third outing with Boden and Fleck, serves as the generic bad guy that all roads predictably lead to. He chews up the screen with his slimy demeanor in a one-note performance that loses steam by the final act. It’s admittedly great to see Nazis pummeled, but the villains need more depth than just being disposable baddies. Maybe they should have signed up for “Psytopics” and gotten their green on.
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Hanks gets the biggest black comedy laughs as a video store clerk testing Pascal’s film acumen. These scenes stray into utter frivolity, but that’s par for the course when he graces the screen. Freaky Tales serves as a wacky excursion with little substance. It accomplishes the goal of transporting you to the vibrancy of ’80s Oakland. That’s good enough despite the lingering flaws. Freaky Tales is a production of eOne Films, Macro, and Gowanus Projection. It will be released theatrically on April 4th from Lionsgate.
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