Freaky Tales (2025)- Pedro Pascal, Jay Ellis, Ben Mendelssohn, Tom Hanks
Quick Take: Anthology movies can be a tough sell, because often each segment can be weighed on their own merits. So, while you might like or love all or most, one segment that feels off, or just doesn’t inspire you the same way as the other segments, can change your perception of the totality of the work. For example, with last years Kinds of kindness, i found something in the first two segments, but struggled a bit more with the third and final. For Freaky Tales, I found myself thinking of so many other projects, with a sort of hyper reality, akin to I Am A Virgo, Sorry To bother You, or They Cloned Tyrone, and even some of Spike Lee’s biting racial commentary from Do The Right Thing. it is just unexpected to see a film with this rhythm and pulse from Bowden and Fleck, a directorial duo responsible for half Nelson, It’s Kind Of A funny Story, and captain Marvel. This feels like one small step for man, compared to their previous efforts.
Premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, Freaky Tales was acquired by Lionsgate for an April 4th release. I was able to screen this in advance, and I gotta say, while it ended up totally blowing my mind as a representational piece from its directorial duo, it faced the same challenge I assumed it would being an anthology story. that being said, this one closed on my favorite section, basically the opposite of Kinds Of Kindness.
Freaky Tales grew on me the longer I stayed with it. I appreciated the references throughout to the film career of Tom Hanks, and I wondered how he would be utilized. his brief role is the highlight of the film, for sure, even though he’s really only in about a minute of the film. the rest of the time, we are being washed in the late-80’s culture of Oakland, and commentary on music, art, film, and race. Race, or more specifically, racial tensions provide a lot of kindling to power the film, and because you will find deplorable characters, it makes the ultra-violence somehow more palatable.
featuring a broad ensemble that includes Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelssohn, Jay Ellis, and many others, this is a very unexpected new trick from the indie duo that helped land Ryan gosling his first Oscar nomination. being from Lionsgate, i expect you should be able to find an audio description track when you go to the theater. It won’t be on my list of the best films of 2025, but I did enjoy it, and it is unique enough that I would remember it, and would be willing to watch again. Plus, the soundtrack is just straight fire. How could it not be?
Fresh: Final Grade: B+
