Freaky Tales - Review 

Rating: 4 out of 5

RYAN Fleck and Anna Boden have formed a filmmaking partnership that is always worth taking notice of, given the quality and diversity of their work.

Having broken out with the teaching drama Half Nelson (which also tackled addiction), they followed it up with the diverse likes of sporting drama Sugar, gambling classic Mississippi Grind, coming-of-age mental health dramedy It’s Kind Of A Funny Story and superhero hit Captain Marvel (all distinct in their own way, all great).

Indeed, it was the success of Captain Marvel and the higher profile it gave them that helped pave the way for Fleck and Boden to realise their dream project: Freaky Tales.

And the result marks another creative departure: a Tarantino-style homage to the grindhouse and exploitation movies of yesteryear that takes viewers on a genuinely wild (often freaky) ride.

Divided into several chapters that you know will ultimately link together (a la Pulp Fiction), the film unfolds in Oakland, California, in 1987, when a glowing green substance that has an unusual effect on those who encounter it has somehow made it to Earth.

Primary among those (or most high profile) is a debt-collector named Clint (Pedro Pascal), grieving the loss of his pregnant girlfriend, who resolves to take on his boss, a corrupt cop (Ben Mendelsohn) who is stirring up a separate hornet’s nest of his own.

There’s also a group of punks (led by Scream 7’s Jack Champion and Expats newcomer Ji-young Yoo), who decide to take on the Nazis who have regularly been bullying them (a scenario inspired by a real-life incident, albeit in a much more heightened and graphically violent form more befitting graphic novels and the film Green Room), as well as a pair of female rappers (newcomer Normani and Wakanda Forever’s Dominique Thorne) who are invited to participate in a rap battle that turns into a battle of the sexes (where male misogyny is firmly put in its place).

Finally, there’s an NBA star (Jay Ellis) taking on the criminals who have targeted his home and killed his lover - a revenge scenario that is pure Grindhouse delivered in Tarantino style.

Fleck and Boden deliver each of the movie’s chapters with a certain visual panache that is evocative of both the films it is seeking to emulate and the era in which it is set (with appropriate music, fashion and grainy visuals at times).

And while some of it feels coarse and unnecessarily graphic (the visual nod to Scanners being one such example), there’s always plenty going on to keep you both invested and even excited.

Pascal, in particular, brings the sort of quiet menace he has honed even more perfectly during his darker moments in The Last of Us to eye-catching effect and arguably has the most involving of the chapters - the added bonus of which includes an exchange between himself and Tom Hanks in a video store that gleefully analyses the best underdog movies of all time.

Hanks, for his part, is clearly having fun with a role that requires him to do very little apart from, well, have fun.

Mendelsohn, on the other hand, goes full OTT menace, channelling the psychopathic tendencies of Gary Oldman in Leon to crowd-pleasing effect.

The finale, involving Ellis’ mystical basketball legend turned lethal assassin, is also brilliantly staged, oozing with as much style as blood in a similarly super-charged way.

But then Fleck and Boden throw so much at the screen that it’s hard not to be impressed with something: whether it’s thoughts expressed as animation during an early exchange between Champion and Yoo, a stylishly blood-soaked fight between the punks and Nazis or the rousing battle of words and ideals that constitutes the rap battle.

It may not be their best or most subtle work, but Freaky Tales does further underline the fearlessness of Boden and Fleck’s filmmaking approach, given how versatile they continue to be with each picture.

It’s a passion project, delivered with gusto, that boasts enough of an infectious energy to carry you along on its whirlwind of nostalgia.

Certificate: 18

Running time: 1hr 47mins