Authenticity and supernatural intertwine in late 80’s Oakland.
When I visited the city of Oakland over a decade ago, there was just a vibe to it unlike most other metropolitan cities I’ve visited in the states. Unlike its sister city San Francisco across the Bay, there was a level of authenticity in the people I came across. That’s not a slight at San Francisco, which is a great city; but Oakland felt like a community of people who cared about one another (they sure didn’t deserve to lose their professional sports teams, but that’s a whole other story). And that’s why directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s (Half Nelson, Captain Marvel) new film, Freaky Tales, ultimately works. Even though it’s uneven at times, its characters who inhabit the city in 1987 feel authentic, even with the supernatural element attached to it.
Freaky Tales tells its story in four chapters, each focusing on separate stories and characters who are all interconnected. In one story, we meet two teenage punks who want to pick a fight with racist Nazis. In another story, we see two young women who work in an ice cream shop while trying to make their break into the music industry as rappers. The next features a criminal enforcer with a baby on the way who is trying to leave his criminal life behind. And in the final chapter, we have an NBA basketball player looking to take care of some criminals who are breaking into the homes of some of his fellow NBA players. While all these stories play out, these characters encounter this strange, green, glowing…hue, perhaps, in different ways. No one knows exactly what this something is (and we never are told), although it certainly has a deeper meaning to it as far as its connection to the people who inhabit these characters in Oakland, who also are spirited in their own ways.
While the connectivity in Freaky Tales eventually comes together, the stories get weirder, especially in the back half of the film. But with that said, the latter vignettes also prove to be the more effective stories, and it’s no surprise when you consider the actors we see getting screen time in the those chapters: Pedro Pascal, Jay Ellis, and Ben Mendelsohn; and, oh yeah, one of these characters has an encounter with someone who shows up in a brilliant cameo appearance. If the first half of the film and its two stories were as interesting and weird as the latter two, we could be talking about a truly remarkable film. However, those first two stories provide much smaller substanceto the overall story. Regardless, they help string along connectivity for viewers, which still makes for satisfying viewing as the characters deemed protagonists in this film all pursue justice in their own sort of way, whether it’s by rapping or just taking down racist Nazis.
Freaky Tales may not be as strange as its title suggests, nor do all the stories that eventually connect the dots make for a memorable viewing experience that we’ll reminisce about later this year when we recap 2025. One thing is for sure, however. The film’s characters and the actors who portray them feel authentic, whether it’s their backgrounds or the motives they bring to the table in this story filled with plenty of action and humor, and that easily makes up for its weaker story elements. And by combining the elements of weird vibes with unique perspectives on a community that doesn’t necessarily come to mind when people first think of California, we get a clear sense of the characters rooted in a city that many are proud to call home. And that in itself feels refreshingly supernatural, whereas most films might portray citizens in metropolitan areas as artificial as the backgrounds we typically see in most modern-day comic book films.