Freaky Tales (2025)
Directed by: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
Premise: An anthology film set in 1987 in Oakland, California. The lives of an alternative punk community, a neo-Nazi group, a debt collector, and a professional basketball player crisscross over the course of a day.
What Works: Anthology films can sometimes be inconsistent with some segments much better than others. Freaky Tales is remarkably consistent. Each story has a slightly different tone and very different characters and yet all the stories are of uniform quality and fit together to form a whole that is bigger than the sum of its parts. The organization of the stories is impressive. They have to play in this order and the filmmakers smartly doll out information about plot and characters across the stories. The arrangement of the stories also creates a dramatic ebb and flow. The bookend segments are visceral and violent but the middle story focuses on a debt collector played by Pedro Pascal and it slows down enough and adds some dramatic weight to the rest of the action. Freaky Tales is set in Oakland, California in 1987 and it feels specific to that time and location. That specificity grounds the fantasy in something recognizable and credible. Freaky Tales has a specific look that recalls Sin City as well as Repo Man and Walter Hill’s films Streets of Fire and The Warriors. Like those movies, Freaky Tales is very violent but the violence is presented in a way that’s very satisfying. Most of the protagonists are underdogs or they are made into sympathetic characters and the filmmakers build a righteous rage in their heroes and in the audience so that when violent retribution comes it is extremely satisfying. The action set pieces best exemplify Freaky Tales’ verve but this energy keeps up throughout the picture. The whole film has a genuinely countercultural vibe. Although it is set decades ago, Freaky Tales is remarkably relevant in this particular political and cultural moment but it isn’t didactic.
What Doesn’t: Freaky Tales takes place in a fantastical version of 1987 Oakland. It’s implied that some kind of supernatural force is at work underneath the action which is represented by a green luminescence that appears throughout the picture. There’s also repeated reference to a New Age clinic. The voiceover at the opening of the movie attempts to rationalize all this but the fantasy remains vague. Ultimately, the meaning of these motifs is not really important. It’s part of the film’s unique style and these elements contribute to its whimsical quality.
Bottom Line: Freaky Tales is a blast. Filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have created a unique movie with a singular style and a distinct filmmaking voice. This is popcorn entertainment with a political edge.
Episode: #1043 (April 13, 2025)