While watching “Freaky Tales,” it’s obvious “Captain Marvel” directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are in love with two things: Campy 80’s films and Oakland, California. Their new anthology movie is an ode to both these things, including four wacky, inter-connected tales featuring punks, neo-nazis, rappers, loan sharks and NBA All-Star “Sleepy” Floyd. By all means, “Freaky Tales” should be an easy win for the directing duo but unfortunately, it’s a better pitch on paper than on screen.
Mis-portraying Weird
An inauthenticity spans every inch of “Freaky Tales” The film’s insistence that it’s strange is consistently proven false by its resistance to do anything actually risqué. For example, its opening segment’s heroic band of punks is the most sanitized depiction of the group. The entire subculture is dumbed down to folks who like rock music and accessories and hate racism and sexism. This is evocative of the entire film’s false counterculture sheen and easily digestible center made for mass audiences. That’s not to say the movie should have been made for a niche audience. Rather, it appears the filmmakers want to capture the alternative tone of the cult classics they homage throughout without having any idea what made those films different from the pack. While “Repo Man” and “The Lost Boys” were the specific visions of unique artists, “Freaky Tales” is an attempt to recreate those visions from directors who can only create mainstream, modern pictures.
In the individual segments, narrative drive is missing despite each one being set up as its own mini story. The points of singular scenes may be obvious while they’re playing out but in the larger picture, their inclusion is unnecessary and tacky. One of these is an extended cameo that is slapped into the middle of the film and plays no importance beyond being a wink to the camera. Crowd-pleasing bits like this are constant but are in direct interference with the retro camp it seems Boden and Fleck are trying to have. As for the overarching plot, the way all the tales become interconnected feels entirely contrived. The ways the stories intervene are not the result of thoughtful world-building but instead, thin, forced beats necessary to make events occur as they do. Even with all the absurd gore and neon-green lightning, the unengaging plots leave the viewer bored.
A Cast Wasted
The talented cast also cannot help but fall victim to the film’s mediocrity, with actors like Pedro Pascal, Dominique Thorne and Ben Mendelsohn all turning in forgettable performances. While there are moments you can tell they were having fun with the roles, getting the chance to act over the top, that fun never lasts, cut off by wooden lines and unremarkable direction. The one actor who is given anything even slightly memorable to do is Jay Ellis as “Sleepy” Floyd as he goes on a bloody massacre through a house full of nazis, easily the film’s best section. During this time, Boden and Fleck finally find the tone they’ve been looking for.
With cheap VHS filters, cue dots, random zoom-ins and a jam-packed soundtrack of 80s hits, Boden and Fleck have desperately tried to make an 80s film for today. But while they may have all the superficial elements of the films from that time down, they’ve made no change in their filmmaking style to create something that feels older. Instead, “Freaky Tales” resembles a Gen Z YouTuber’s take on what the 1980s were, taking cues from “Stranger Things” rather than researching the era. What’s strange about this is that both directors were both very alive and aware in 1987 making one think they’d know how to portray that year accurately. The simple premise of Oakland, California versus neo nazis with a magical twist sounds amazing and like a picture nearly anyone could get behind. Although, with execution this middling, it ends up being one of the biggest disappointments of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
