The first reviews for Pedro Pascal’s newest movie Freaky Tales are in - and they’re looking mostly positive.
Directed by Captain Marvel’s Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, Freaky Tales follows four separate yet interconnected tales set in 1987 Oakland California: teen punks defend their turf against Nazi skinheads, a rap duo battles for hip-hop immortality, a weary henchman gets a shot at redemption, and an NBA All-Star settles the score.
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18 and has since been met with mixed yet mostly positive reviews from critics. At the time of writing this article, it stands at a respectable 70% on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck create an anything-goes anarchic spirit that, when combined with an impressive cast game for this type of madness, plays like a stylish and entertaining genre mixtape,” says Bloody Disgusting’s Meagan Navarro. Nicolás Delgadillo from Discussing Film, shares the enthusiasm, adding: “The best part of Freaky Tales is the fact that it just keeps getting better and better as it goes on.”
Many critics commented on the film's West Coast setting and sense of nostalgia. “Freaky Tales plays like a love letter to both the city of Oakland and the genre films that permeated video store shelves in the late '80s and early '90s.” says Brent Hankins from The Lamplight Review. Critic Alejandra Martinez from The Wrap shares the Cali love writing “Freaky Tales gives us a host of underdogs to root for, along with a bloody, fun, very ‘80s time on the weirder side of Oakland, California.”
However, not everyone is a fan as Nick Schager from The Daily Beast points out that despite the glitzy cast, the film just didn't hit the mark for him, “You can cut-and-paste all your adolescent obsessions into a giant collage (and recruit Pedro Pascal and Ben Mendelsohn to participate in the madness), but that doesn’t mean it’ll amount to more than a messy, insubstantial grab bag of your favorite things.”
Despite its flaws, Screen International’s Amber Wilkinson commended the flick's attempt at recreating the feel of past '80s-centric films “If the end result never quite achieves the style and bite of the likes of Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, it is still a lot of fun and should appeal to late-night crowds and those who lived through the period, in particular.”
Freaky Tales stars Rogue One's Ben Mendelsohn, Avatar: The Way of Water's Jack Champion, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's Dominique Thorne, Top Gun: Maverick’s Jay Ellis, singer Normani Kordei Hamilton, and Euphoria’s Angus Cloud, as well as The Mandalorian's Pascal.
A general release date for Freaky Tales is yet to be announced. For more, check all of the upcoming movies heading your way in 2023 and beyond.
