It feels somewhat wrong to be so critical of a film that seems tailored made to my cinematic sensibilities. One that is comprised of nearly everything I’ve been asking for films to do more of over the last few years. In a sea of endless IP and remakes, something like “Freaky Tales” should be a giant breath of fresh air. It takes risks, goes for broke, and is about as original as anthology films can get. It’s bombastic, self aware, hyper stylized, and a loving ode to city and cinema. And most importantly, it spends a large portion of its runtime beating up Nazis, and it’s hard to fault a film that anchors itself to such a solid core principle. But stripped of its festival premiere atmosphere (where all you have to go on is a cast list and a single still), it can’t quite live up to the hype in a more muted crowd and some expectations laid upon it. For all its gusto, it loses its originality by embracing its inspirations a little too tightly, making it indistinguishable from the films it so desperately wants to be.
“Freaky Tales” isn’t so much a movie as much as it’s a declaration of cinephile obsession operating in peak “fuck it” filmmaking form. A pastiche homage to 80s cinema and Oakland, it drags and excites in equal measure, wrought with not so subtle inspirations as if the film was made simply to shout from the roof tops their Letterboxd top 10. I too enjoy the works of Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright and Walter Hill, and of course films like “Pulp Fiction” and “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” and “The Warriors” all contribute greatly to my own cinematic understanding and left an everlasting impression on me. This is an amalgamation of all of these and doesn’t do enough to wear a single piece of its own clothing. And the more it borrows the messier it gets, unable to land on an identity of its own and leaving it with nothing but Nazi carnage for the sake of Nazi carnage. I’ll watch Nazis get punched for hours, and you don’t really need a good reason to take pleasure in the abuse, but it can’t quite figure out what else to say beyond that despite its attempts at trying to capture a city in a tumultuous era.
Oakland is rich with history and hustle, and “Freaky Tales” wants to transport us into a fantasy version of the filmmakers roots. Writer/Director duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (“Captain Marvel“) very clearly love Oakland, trash 80s cinema and the aforementioned films, but in their chaos response to the tightly controlled MCU filmmaking, they get a bit lost in the sauce of their own strange brew. And yet, for everything it lacks in narrative substance it makes up for with sheer, unabashed entertainment. These four interconnected stories may not all be on the same level as each other and may not have much to say for themselves, but you’d be hard pressed to not enjoy most of what it’s doing. Even when you can recognize the nodes of Tarantino and Wright and Hill, “Freaky Tales” injects such outrageous style and strong performances into its familiar frameworks it doesn’t really matter. Many of the stories are fun as hell even if they don’t say much, and the committed performances oversell each entry.
You can tell everyone is more than willing to let their freaky flag fly to make “Freaky Tales” as fun to watch as it clearly was to make. Pedro Pascal and Ben Mendelsohn (no one does schlubby asshole quite like him) are standouts, more than willing to bring their gravitas to a small project and be larger than life in every scene. Jay Ellis, Ji-young Yoo, Jack Champion, Normani, Dominique Thorne, and Keir Gilchrist all make the most of what little they have, as this film gives them a flimsy story and asks them to do a lot with it. There’s no one that doesn’t know what movie their making, which for something as bold and weird and disjointed as you certainly need. Hell, even Oakland rap icon Too $hort and legendary Golden State Warrior Sleepy Floyd make an appearance, another nod to 80s Oakland and those who know their influence on the city. Boden and Fleck nail the look and feel of Oakland, which adds some grounding to the film’s overreaching ambition.
This all leaves me in a bit of a conundrum with what to do with something like “Freaky Tales.” On the one hand, I can recognize the mess and influence that borders on rip off, and be put off by the lack of compelling connected stories that don’t say much. I can conclude that it’s largely a swing and a miss, a film that may work great in an unsuspecting but hyped audience but loses steam in more casual settings. But I can also recognize that this film is entertaining as all hell, that when it works it REALLY works and that no holds barred approach to filmmaking delivers a loud and proud over the top 80s cinema love letter. To say I didn’t enjoy myself watching Nazis get beat up and great actors having a blast and sword fighting and punk rock and a monologue about the 5 greatest underdog films from one of the most shocking and pleasantly surprising cameos would be a lie. Every single one of those elements worked for me and left me with a big old “I love movies too, you guys” smile on my face.
Whenever “Freaky Tales” would start to lose me, it would do something so wild and fun that it would pull me back in. There’s a lot missing but also a lot there to enjoy, leaving it in a place that’s not quite as freaky as the title would suggest but just freaky enough to be something new – even if that’s mostly comprised of something borrowed. It feels wrong to rate this too low. Despite its flaws and inability to stand on its own, it’s still exactly the kind of film we need more of in theaters. It’s as easy to write off as it is to accept it at face value, dismissing “Freaky Tales” with same speed as embracing it. It’s messy good fun, and your milage may vary on which of those matters more.
Sometimes style over substance isn’t a bad thing, and “Freaky Tales” has enough style and attitude and energy to power through its less effective narrative construction. In time, I think it will find its cult audience and have some reclamation in the future. If for nothing else, it will live on through countless memes and GIFs it is bound to create. And once the [redacted] cameo gets out, it’s sure to be the talk of the town even if it’s not really all that important.
And ya, in any era at any time – say, 80s Oakland – it’s always ok to punch Nazis. I don’t know if that’s the take away from “Freaky Tales,” but it’s a reminder we could all serve to remember once in a while.
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
“Freaky Tales” is now playing in theaters. You can watch the trailer below.
