Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are back on the big screen with Freaky Tales, their biggest swing yet.

The longtime creative partners haven’t released a film since Captain Marvel grossed a cool $1.1 billion in 2019. The duo then went on to helm four episodes of the Cate Blanchett-led FX miniseries, Mrs. America, after promoting their MCU installment’s spring release that year. And by the time the political drama premiered in April 2020, Boden and Fleck were stuck inside like the rest of the global population, providing them with the bandwidth necessary to finally develop Fleck’s long-gestating passion project about his memories as an 11-year-old Oaklander in 1987. The film isn’t as semi-autobiographical as Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans or James Gray’s Armageddon Time, but it’s equally personal for Fleck.

The title of Freaky Tales is based on the “Freaky Tales” song by celebrated Oakland rapper, Too $hort,...