Displaying items by tag: Frakey Tales movie

FREAKY TALES

US, 2024, 107 minutes, Colour.

Pedro Pascal, Jay Ellis, Ben Mendelssohn, Normani, Dominique Thorne, Jack Champion, Angus Cloud, Keir Gilchrist, Too #hort, Tom Hanks.

Directed by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck.

Writing-directing team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck has produced a number of interesting films like Half Nelson, Sugar in the 2000s and then great commercial success in 2019 with Captain Marvel. Worked extensively on television.

There are four freaky tales in this film and have been described as Tarantino-esque which indicates the topics, themes, treatment. The setting is 1987 and Ryan Fleck has gone on his memories of the period, Oakland California, the Grand Lake cinema, the background of rap musicians, video stores, racist conflicts…

American audiences will better appreciate this film than international audiences because of the detail, the focus in on particular rap artists, Sleepy Floyd, Too #hort, actors playing them and then their playing themselves… There are some top actors in the film, Pedro Pascal in the longest and most serious of the four, Ben Mendelssohn as a policeman. And, something of a spoiler, an appearance by Tom Hanks in the video store.

For audiences wanting something different about American life, especially the atmosphere of the 1980s, Freaky Tales is intriguing, sometimes disturbing, always interesting.

1. The title and expectations? A warning?
2. 1987, Oakland, California, Evergreen Catholic Theatre, the clubs, the streets, speeches battlegrounds? Diners, clubs and rap? The criminal world, the police world, corruption? The world of the basketball league, players? The director, Ryan Fleck, growing up in this world, drawing on his memories?
3. The musical background, the clubs of the young people playing, breakdancing?
4. The four stories, the interconnections, an overall portrait of Oakland?
5. The first story, Lucid and his girlfriend, at the cinema, the movie references throughout, especially of the video store and Hank and his discussions with Clint? The young people, the club, the mixed races, the appearance of the Nazi group, the attack, the brutality? The meeting at the club, the votes hiring the police, or defending? The vote for defence? The elaborate weapons, the arrival, the attack, the comic book images of the fight and splatter? Victory? The antiracist stances?
6. The background of the greenlight, the special power, the manifestations in the eyes, in the weapons, in the attack? And throughout the film? And suggestions of inner power and the ability to overcome – especially for sleepy Floyd?
7. The second story, the two girls, in the bar, the arrival of the policeman, his manner, interrogation, the ice cream, bubblegum, his credits? The women and their resistance and hostility? The other customers? In the bus, their discussions, in the club, the host, inviting on stage, the misogynist lab, the response, the response of the crowds?
8. The different the third story, Clint, with his pregnant wife, the phone call, the news of the murders, going back 24 hours, his life waiting car, his going to the video shop, Tom Hanks’s Hank, the discussion, going behind the scenes, the cards, the confrontation, the debt issues, Clint and his last stand, breaking the man’s finger, coming out, taking Sid and Nancy for his wife? The confrontation with the young man, his glint, the flashbacks, Clint killing his father, the guns, the shooting, while going to hospital, the arrest of the man? The encounter with the go-between, the further demands, the news of the baby survival, the police chief, taking Clint, holding him and the baby?
9. The fourth story, an actual event reimagined, the police chief and the Nazis and his son, getting the information about the players, what was in their homes, the planning of the robberies while they were playing, the crowds arriving, the characters from the previous stories? The game, sleepy Floyd and his achievement? His mother, girlfriend, the attacks on the houses, the details of the robberies? Lucid his giving the information to sleepy Floyd?
10. Floyd, Green light, his inner meditation, donning the costume, the weapons, the Tarantinoesque massacres? The confrontation with the police chief, with Clinton the baby, the explosion?
11. The henchmen arriving at the house, finding sleepy Floyd, the final deaths?
12. Clint, the baby and leaving?
13. The postscript, sleepy Floyd and his system, inner strength, Superman, the gathering of all the people, the photo?
14. Weird freaky stories and the weird freaky styles of storytelling?