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‘Freaky Tales’ Review: Pedro Pascal, Jay Ellis and [You’ll Never Guess] Steal Overstuffed Oakland Homage
Back when 'Half Nelson' co-helmers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden started out, practically everyone was ripping off 'Pulp Fiction.' What took them so long?
In four distinct but intertwining chapters — populated mostly with fresh faces, plus grizzled-but-gorgeous Pedro Pascal — “Freaky Tales” melds wildly different sectors of the city: There’s the rowdy-yet-respectful Gilman Street punk crowd; the lively Oakland hip-hop scene (including Too $hort, whose raunchy rap anthem gives the film its name), on the brink of revolutionizing rap music; the Warriors’ historic victory over the Lakers, in which local basketball legend Eric “Sleepy” Jones scored a record-setting 29 points in the last quarter; and a disturbing spike in Neo-Nazi-linked hate crimes, which strangely serves to tie everything else together. Fleck and Boden put that philosophy in action with the next chapter, wherein Too $hort (Symba) challenges female duo Danger Zone (played by Dominique Thorne and Normani, in her acting debut) to an epic rap battle. Each of the stories wraps abruptly, flashing back to a strange campaign for something called the Psyotics spiritual learning center — practically the only continuity to be found as the bizarrely structured film switches up aspect ratios and visual styles with each segment.
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