MOVIE REVIEW: FREAKY TALES

 

An NBA star, a corrupt cop, a female rap duo, teenage punks, neo-Nazis and a debt collector embark on a collision course in 1987 Oakland, Calif.

Director: Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden

Cast: Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Normanit, Dominique Thorne, Jack Champion, Ji-young Yoo, Angus Cloud

Release Date: April 4, 2025

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Drama

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language throughout including slurs, sexual content and drug use.

Runtime: 1h 47m

Review:

Freaky Tales is a quirky, Interconnected Tarantinoesque anthology that delivers a hefty dose of 80's Bay area nostalgia with increasingly off the wall chapters that benefit from a strong vibe and cast.  Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden borrow elements from a variety of sources for the four chapters that make up the story with noticeable nods to Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill being readily evident and even some sprinkles of Scott Pilgrim in the opening.  The pairs deep love and affection for this time and space seeps through the screen as they touch on everything from the punk and hip-hop scene to dirty cops, Nazis and basketball ninjas.  Some chapters are far more grounded than others with the filmmakers asking you to roll with the punches especially as events get nuttier in the final act.  Like most anthologies, some chapters work better than others with the first two really nailing down the vibe of each setting before stalling out in a more straightforward crime drama with the Pedro Pascal focused third chapter.  That's not to say the third chapter is bad, it just marks a notice shift in the film's tone to establish the connective tissue that brings everything together in its final act.  It’s a minor hiccup but it does have a fun cameo that makes the tonal change easier to deal.  The ensemble cast turns in solid work across the board with Jack Champion and Ji-young Yoo sharing some believable romantic chemistry in the opening act with Normanit and Dominique Thorne bringing a similar authenticity to their friendship in the rap battle portion.  Pedro Pascal is given the least showy role in the whole thing but delivers a solid turn as usual.  Ben Mendelsohn and Jay Ellis are given more fun roles as a sleazy detective and rather lethal point guard.   It all makes Freaky Tales a rather unexpected surprise of a film that's sure to become a cult classic in the years to come.

B+

MOVIE REVIEW: ESCAPE ROOM

Six adventurous strangers travel to a mysterious building to experience the escape room -- a game where players compete to solve a series of puzzles to win $10,000. What starts out as seemingly innocent fun soon turns into a living nightmare as the four men and two women discover each room is an elaborate trap that's part of a sadistic game of life or death.

Director: Adam Robitel

Cast: Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Taylor Russell, Tyler Labine, Jay Ellis, Nik Dodani

Release Date: January 4, 2019

Genres: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Rated PG-13 for terror/perilous action, violence, some suggestive material and language

Runtime: 1h 39 min

Review:

Escape Room is one of those January horror releases that pop up every year.  For all intents and purposes, it should be terrible and forgettable.  Escape Room is surprising in that it’s actually an entertainingly brisk sci-fi horror film.  The film itself plays out like a blood and gore less version of Saw, at least on the surface.  As the film goes on, you’d be hard pressed to ignore a more than passing similarities to the 1997 sci-fi gem Cube.  Nobody would ever accuse this film of being as intelligently written as Cube but it works more often than it doesn’t.  That’s because the film cast is surprisingly likeable even though their characters are written with only the most basic levels of layering.  Recognizable faces such as Deborah Ann Woll, Tyler Labine and Jay Ellis give the film a bit more clout than you’d usually expect from films of this ilk.  Sadly, the film does lose a bit of steam in its final act where it seems to rush through the conclusion only to set up a possible sequel, never allowing this original entry’s plot to settle.  Ultimately, Escape Room is one of those fast food style films where you’re liable to forget about it shortly after you leave the theater but then have a sequel pop up a year later.

C+