Freaky Tales

The first forty minutes was kind of rough. For starters, the "Freaky" in the title seems kind of a misnomer. The first two tales were wish-fulfillment fantasies with a sprinkling of surreal atmospheric touches. The stories themselves were far too simple and left me thinking: "That's it?"

All I came away with was that young punk rock fans actually can defeat a NAZI gang in ultraviolent combat and two budding young rappers can overcome misogyny to win a rap battle. I'm sure that some will find these tales entertaining, but I found myself disconnected from them emotionally.

Then the third tale hit, and let's just say the first two tales felt like filler designed to get this anthology to feature length because "Born to Mack" is where the real juice is. The third tale gave me low-key Pulp Fiction vibes with Pedro Pascal really bringing the charisma and depth with his performance that the first two tales had been sorely lacking. There's a surprise cameo in this tale that really hit the spot for me personally, Roger Ebert misquote aside. This story was also the first to be laced with darkness, tragedy, and moral reckoning. Pascal's grappling with his past misdeeds was riveting as were the scenes where he burns all his bridges because he feels he has nothing left to lose.

The last tale "The Legend of Sleepy Floyd" hit more like the first stories to me. There wasn't really significant character development. It had the strongest style of the bunch, which were all exercises in style, and had some creative kills and gore. But Sleepy Floyd was not significantly developed as a character. So, the episode really amounted to a bunch of mindless violence being perpetuated on racist bikers and Ben Mendelsohn's corrupt cop by a fictionalized version of a real-life NBA player. I'm sure fans of Floyd might find this awesome, but it wasn't exactly storytelling dynamite.

Ultimately, I felt like all we were left with was stylized action, satire, and a dash of surrealism and grindhouse atmosphere.

"Born to Mack" was the only story that had the emotional resonance and character introspection I personally value. It stands out to me as the only tale to tell a compelling story.

Still, I imagine that most people will find Freaky Tales to be a heartfelt tribute to Oakland's vibrant culture with directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, both with ties to the Bay Area, infusing the narrative with a sense of authenticity, blending real-life figures and events with fantastical elements.

It just "missed it by that much" for me personally.

Decent weekend movie but tries to be like Pulp Fiction. I watch a ton of movies, about 15 per month so I can give a pretty good point of view. Also, I grew up in in the 80's so I had a good idea of what life was like back then.

First off, casting was surprisingly decent for this flick. Ji-Young Yoo is not an outstanding actor but I'm glad she and so many other Asians are getting so many roles in Hollywood. This was a much different role from her last character role on the TV series Expats so it was kind of difficult to see her as an 80's punk rock kid. She's kinda like the up and coming Korean American female version of Steven Yeun, but she's not as good.

As we all know, Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, and Tom Hanks are Oscar/Emmy quality actors so having them in the movie helped tremendously. I am actually surprised that Tom Hanks agreed to do such a miniscule role... Everyone else including Jay Ellis were just fillers, and I think they could have found a Too Short impersonator that sounded more like him. Normani and the other girl actually rapped a lot better than the guy acting as Too Short.

The movie format was just like a Tarantino film, multiple different chapters and then all the characters tie into the story at the end. The first 25 mins of the movie is shown in old school 4:3 aspect ratio like TV used to be, but then after that it goes back to normal widescreen.

Overall, the movie was kind of boring up until the last chapter about Sleepy Floyd. And come on, could it be any more like Kill Bill?

If you are looking for a movie to pass the time and were an 80's kid like me, you might be entertained. Just don't expect huge 80's budget sets like Stranger Things(which did the 80's super accurate).

Well this one pleasantly surprised much more than expected.

Each separate story is really entertaining, the writing is great and the cast are brilliant.

It's also great how each one intersects with the other.

What really solidifies the film is the soundtrack. It is absolutely sublime and perfectly helps set the scene throught the film.

So many amazing songs for multiple genres that couldn't have been selected any better.

I found myself genuinely disappointed came to an end, I wanted more.

If 80s retro, killer tunes and ultra violence tick your boxes then you'll not be disappointed.

Thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.

Only first heard about the film a day or two before it opened in Toronto. Didn't have very high expectations, but honestly of everything playing right now, this was the only film that interested me. I couldn't have been more surprised.

"Freaky Tales" is part "Pulp Fiction" (1994), part "Heavy Metal" (1981), and at times reminiscent of another 80s-inspired film, "Mandy" (2018). Four wacky (freaky) tales set in Oakland California, weaving together a diverse and fun cast of characters.

Aspect ratio's are changed between segments, animated characters burst onto screen, blood is spilt, punk music blares through the speakers - there's just a lot of fun being had on screen, and I felt it. I can only imagine feeling the response from a large audience during certain moments of the film; unfortunately there were less than 10 people at my screening.

Without giving anything else away, if you want to have a fun time at the theatre go support this movie. It's rare to see a movie like this get a theatrical release anymore, but it was the best theatrical experience I've had so far this year.

I have decided this is what was going on in Oakland while Otto and his fellow repo men were dealing with their problems in Los Angeles. Loads of fun, good acting, and, unlike in the real world, people get their comeuppance. I am old enough to enjoy this film's pedigree and wish the effects were practical rather than CGI, but I am obviously spitting into the wind on that one. Every section is solid although their connections are a little tenuous like a lot of 90's indie films. I couldn't really decide if this was another homage or just the same problem those earlier films had but, in the end, I just didn't care.