Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Normani, Dominique Thorne, Jack
Champion, Ji-young Yoo, Angus Cloud, Tom Hanks
Nestled in the shadow of its more famous Bay Area neighbour, San
Francisco, the Californian city of Oakland is one of those underdog
towns that has to shout louder to be heard. Named after a foul-mouthed
hip-hop track by Oakland rapper Too Short (who also narrates via
voiceover), Freaky Tales is certainly loud. The filmmaking
duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have fashioned a punky,
day-glo tribute to the city where Fleck grew up, a tale of underdogs
rising up to beat the odds.
Split into four vaguely interconnected stories,
Freaky Tales attempts to do for Oakland what so many
movies have done for California's biggest city, Los Angeles. Don't
expect the realism of Short Cuts or
Welcome to LA though, as Boden and Fleck have taken their
cues more from Pulp Fiction and Go. There's plenty of pulpy fiction on display here, but some fact too,
with real life characters and events reconfigured into a psychotronic
fantasia reminiscent of Alex Cox's Repo Man (at one point
a character insists that her husband rent a copy of Cox's
Sid & Nancy).
Set across a couple of days in May of 1987, Freaky Tales' real life figures include Too Short (DeMario Symba Driver) and
the teenage female rapping duo of Barbie (Dominique Thorne) and Entice (Normani), who featured on
his self-deprecating diss track 'Don't Fight the Feelin'. In this
version of events, Barbie and Entice are invited on stage to take part
in a rap battle with Too Short, who arrogantly intends to humiliate them
with his notoriously misogynistic lyrics.
Another Oakland icon who plays a major part here is basketball star
Sleepy Floyd (Jay Ellis), who became a Golden State Warriors
legend after an incredible solo performance in a playoff game against
the Lakers. Freaky Tales reimagines Floyd as a samurai
sword wielding
Ghost Dog
figure who has developed mind powers ala The Fury and
Scanners, powers he calls upon when his girlfriend is murdered and he sets out
for revenge.
Another story is set against the backdrop of 924 Gilman Street, a club
that served as a second home for Oakland's punks. When a gang of racist skinheads begin harassing the Gilman's multi-racial patrons, the punks decide to
fight back. Centred on the will-they-won't-they relationship of teenage
punks Tina (Ji-young Yoo) and Lucid (Jack Champion), the segment owes
much to '70s grindhouse classics like
Switchblade Sisters but climaxes in a cartoonish brawl
closer in spirit to Edgar Wright.
Freaky Tales' best segment is its least cartoonish, and focusses on Clint (Pedro Pascal), a debt collector who begins his day setting out to perform one last
job. Of course, such plans never work out. Largely played straight, save
for a distracting cameo by Tom Hanks as a condescending video store
owner, the segment doesn't have much of a plot but Pascal's pained
performance keeps us gripped.
All four stories reel us in with intriguing setups, but only Clint's
story ends in a manner we might not see coming. The other three end up in
predictable battles of a violent or verbal nature. Boden and Fleck began
their career channelling '70s cinema with low-key character dramas like
Half Nelson and
Mississippi Grind, and action doesn't appear to be their forte. The bloodshed here is too
derivative of other filmmakers who have done it better, and no amount of
gimmicky comic book flourishes can make Freaky Tales feel
like any more than an insubstantial lark.
For all of its attempts to be "stylish," Freaky Tales comes
alive not during its cartoonish set-pieces but when it focusses on its
characters. Its best moments are simple interactions between two people,
whether it's Clint and his pregnant wife playfully arguing over what video
tape to rent or Lucid and Tina's charmingly innocent flirtation. It's the
performances that stand out here, from Pascal imbuing a stock noir
archetype with surprising humanity to Yoo coming off as every inch the
movie star while sporting massive hair that gives her the look of an '80s
Hong Kong action star. The trouble with such short segments is that just
as we begin to become invested in a certain character, the narrative moves
on to the next segment, and the characters and their relationships never
get time to breath and develop. Had Boden and Fleck cared more about their
characters than the mythical version of Oakland they inhabit,
Freaky Tales might stand more favourably alongside the
ensemble dramas of Los Angeles. More style than substance, too often
Freaky Tales makes us feel like we're watching someone else
play Grand Theft Auto: Oakland.
Freaky Tales is in UK/ROI
cinemas from April 18th.
