As soon as the beat from Too $hort’s Freaky Tales comes on during the intro of the movie, Freaky Tales, you know that you are about to watch something different. The film takes place in Oakland in 1987. The movie’s vibe is straight West Coast Hip Hop, and it will take you on a ride you did not know you wanted to go. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have created a world that not only feels fleshed out but also pulls you into the connected stories.
The narrator of the movie, Too $hort, tells the audience about a strange shower that left a mysterious aura around the land. As the movie progresses, we see the mystical green substance that has covered certain parts of the land and affects the characters in the four chapters of the movie. The characters in the different chapters connect in some way, and we see the connection as the movie plays.
The chapters in the movie vary in length but are introduced by the narrator. The first chapter deals with a group of punk kids who are trying to save their club from a group of Skinheads who come in every night to start fights and wreck the place. Although the pace of this chapter is a little slow, it builds up to a fantastic confrontation with the skinheads that will leave you horrified. Chapter two reminded me of going to the hip-hop shows and watching the local emcees battle it out on the stage. This one is not as outlandish as the first chapter, but is a good palette cleanser as for what’s to come.
Chapters 3 and 4 are the bread and butter of Freaky Tales. Both of these stories are full of heart, pain, and ballistic endings. It is fun to see how these chapters connect to the ones before them, but also great to see the direction they take the movie. In Chapter 3, Pedro Pascal’s character Clint is trying to get out of the business to start a family. As with any hitman, they have one more job to be released, and their employer always moves that line to get more work from them. One of the highlights of Clint’s chapter is the cameo from Tom Hanks as a video store clerk. Hanks’ character drops little nuggets of advice hidden in his conversation about movies. It is pretty cool seeing Hanks in a cameo role, and he looks like he had fun doing this.
I feel the less you know about Chapter 4, the better experience you will have. I will say that Jay Ellis plays for a professional basketball team and learns about an incident that happened at his home while he was playing the game. What he does is not only incredible but some of the best stuff you will see on the screen this year. Another great thing about these final Chapters is seeing Ben Mendelsohn and the role that he plays in the final moments of the movie.
Final Thoughts: Freaky Tales is a callback to 80s movies with interconnected stories and a killer soundtrack. Each of the chapters has a great story, and it’s interesting to see how they connect. The chapters with Pedro Pascal and Jay Ellis highlight the insanity of the movie and have it finish with a bang. This is an experience like no other this year!
Kid-Friendly: The movie is not for young kids. I recommend it for kids ages 16 and up. There is a lot of violence and bad words spoken in this movie.
Violence: There is a lot of violence in the movie in the form of stabbings, shootings, and some pretty brutal fights.
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. Executive produced by hip-hop pioneer Too $hort, and featuring an all-star ensemble including Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Normani, Dominique Thorne, Jack Champion, Ji-young Yoo, Angus Cloud, and Tom Hanks, this pulpy blend of explosive action, edgy humor, gory kills, and sly twists and turns makes for one wild ride.