Freaky Tales
- Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
- Writer: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
- Producer: Anna Boden, Justin Bursch, Ryan Fleck, Poppy Hanks, Jelani Johnson, Charles D. King, James Lopez, Victor Moyers, Too $hort, David Weintraub
CGiii Comment
In 1987 Oakland, a mysterious force guides The Town’s underdogs in four interconnected tales: Teen punks defend their turf against Nazi skinheads, a rap duo battles for hip-hop immortality, a weary henchman gets a shot at redemption, and an NBA All-Star settles the score. Basically another day in the Bay.
Since premiering their short Gowanus, Brooklyn at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden have forged careers marked by fresh story sensibilities, rigorous character complexities, and outstanding performances. A mind-blowing mixtape and joyful ode to the ’80s, Freaky Tales imaginatively fuses styles and cinematic influences with giddy abandon, yielding a pastiche of pulp, pop, comic books, anthology horror, Old Testament wrath, and kung fu by way of a bloody crescendo that leaves no appendage unsevered. The supernatural storm brewing above Oakland empowers its ensemble of underdog warriors with a spirit of righteous retribution as they take on bullies, corruption, racism, misogyny, the Man, and the Lakers. A stirring anthem to solidarity and Oakland’s egalitarian, countercultural, and multicultural spirit, Freaky Tales reminds a world of wrongdoing that this is what you get when you mess with the underdogs — after all, there are more of us.—JN
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Cast & Characters
Pedro Pascal
Ben Mendelsohn
Angus Cloud
Jack Champion
Keir Gilchrist
Jay Ellis
Dominique Thorne
Ji-young Yoo
Normani
Michael X. Sommers (as Tuck)
Cheryl Vienna (as Sleepy's Mom)
Yong Kim (as Tina's Father)
Josh Schell (as Fan Biker)
Mike Infante (as Nick)
James Coker
Natalia Dominguez
Vinny Balbo (as Punk Rocker)
Alex Jason Lee King (as Concert-goer)
Andrew Roach
Michelle Farrah Huang
Rasmus Toyra
Marteen
Max Carpenter (as Dawson)
Alexis Zollicoffer (as Sleepy's Girlfriend)
Stephanie Heiner (as Scantily Clad Dancer)