Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are back to the indie scene. Sounds interesting doesn’t it? This time the duo has after seeing so much success in Captain Marvel. Directed by two directors, or co directing teams if you want, Boden and Fleck directed a film that is the subject of this review, Freaky Tales. Freaky Tales always stays busy, but it also has a definitive and well executed narrative structure. The movie is set in Oakland, California, US, in 1987 and divided into 4 acts or chapters that revolve around different groups of people and institutions everyone seems to be at odds with. What we see in the sky is a loving tribute to Oakland, and at the same time, we can also see a lot of struggles and negative forces of that time. For instance, Nazis, evil and disgusting cops, and many more people who are standard bearers of “the Man”. Because Oakland was Fleck’s childhood home, he accurately portrays the city however many times the film pretends to be an exploitation piece. This will appeal to the people that enjoy the quirkiness of directors relishing in the absurd.
The idea is crazy, to say the least, and for the love of god, more filmmakers in the contemporary industry should paint with broad strokes after raking in a billion bucks for a mammoth studio, I don’t care what anyone says. We witness the film’s beginning with an opening crawl very similar to Little Shop of Horrors. To be honest, these parallels go much further than just the first scenes. Significantly, the Off Broadway classic is arguably the quintessential example of an underdog narrative. Freaky Tales, on the other hand, is an attempt by Boden. Fleck to cram four underdog stories into a single feature film. So, is this the best underdog movie ever, as some of the insane cameos in the film encourage Perhaps not in retrospect, but in the moment, it definitely does seem so. This is because the filmmakers always manage to include their underdog protagonists battling the abominable human filth discussed above: the Nazis, the misogynists, the perverts. More often than not, the film places its protagonists in direct opposition to the corrupt systems that allow evil and its adherents to breed and grow unchecked in Oakland. In the circumstance of the ones offered, how is it possible not to root for the greatest vengeance possible. Fortunately, for the audience, this happens four times over before we reach the end of the film.
Freaky Tales is set in real time and is divided into four parts that all lead to the same day day and a half period. A group of punk rock fans followed the first chapter as they went to a bar during the week to watch lively punk shows. It’s one of those ‘I’m in the bar’ moments that is brilliantly choreographed yet doesn’t come off as too hostile. With this group, there is a sense of belonging, which is particularly noticeable when faced with a bunch of skinhead thugs seeking to bully them. Always having the group of Nazis harassing them, the group starts deciding to take action. What you might not expect is that two opposing factions engage and all hell breaks loose. Whole of Freaky Tales is bursting with a level of craziness only a franchise that has been caged can provide. And, who doesn’t like watching Skins getting smashed on the street.
But in Freaky Tales nothing is romanticized in that purported nostalgic spirit. There is a certain love for Oakland’s figurehead Too $hort but chapter two has been based upon the real rap act Danger Zone. Within the confines of a stage, rappers Entice (Dominique Thorne) and Barbie (Normani) confront the titular rapper to a live battle. True to the golden age of hip hop, pitbull Too Short’s lyrics are harsh and misogynistic, focusing on the factor of his women opponents. In a dehydration recipe for filmmaking, this duo responds to the affront and destroys TD in minutes, convincingly. The filmmaking is straightforward but the barbsThanks to their incredible presence they turned one of the most important sequences of the film into a page turner.
The third chapter of the film, however, is where it begins to unravel. There is nothing wrong with the sequence. After all, the sequence features Internet Groper’s favorite Daddy, and he does not disappoint. A dramatic sequence comes in, which is so detached from everything else that it feels like it was part of a different and possibly longer film and was awkwardly slotted into the larger story. If taken on its own, it would work remarkably well as a short film and yet it’s such a jarring shift considering the film gets very bleak and unsettling. It is somewhat redeemed by the fourth chapter though, which seems to follow up closely where its predecessor left off. It portrays the real and stylized re imagining of May 10th 1987, a date when NBA Superstar Eric “Sleepy” Floyd had one of his best days playing for the Golden State Warriors. Within the movie, following that event is a scene that can only be described as pure Grindhouse. For the next 35 minutes, Boden & Fleck go completely off on the cinematic tropes that they have such a clear love for. Kill Bill, Scanners, and Death Wish, this is a film that genre’s fans will enjoy.
Though the two halves of the film do tend to feel cut apart from one another a little, both duology of chapters packs great material to be viewed as an approximately 50 to 55 minute double feature. Other than a few minor interactions here and there, the chapters themselves are predominantly self contained in any of the 4 segments of Oakland that are touched upon. Now while an anthology film is good by itself and does provide room for various aspects of cinema to be explored, Freaky Tales comes off as a film that would be much more enhanced if there was a lot more unity between the individual stories that were presented in conjunction with each other. But given the fact that this much effort and reverence for not only the genre but an opportune location shines through the screen, it is no wonder why this film is quite entertaining and interesting. As with everything else, the more a director or a filmmaker sticks to their ideas with complete determination, the more that the intended idea will be strongly presented in the final output.
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