Punk, Rap, and Redemption Collide

Read Time:5 Minute, 16 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Punk, Rap, and Redemption Collide
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Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Drama
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 1h 47m
Director(s): Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden
Writer(s): Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Normani, Dominique Thorne, Jack Champion, Ji-young Yoo, Angus Cloud, Tom Hanks
Where to Watch: In select theaters on April 4, 2025

RAVING REVIEW: The kind of project that only gets made when two directors cash in on their blockbuster cred and decide to get weird, FREAKY TALES is the right kind of chaos. Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, this multi-genre anthology doesn’t just look back at 1987 Oakland—it energizes it. It’s messy, loud, and a little all over the place. But it’s also bursting with creative vision, cultural specificity, and a refreshing willingness to take wild swings. It’s the kind that doesn’t always hit center field, but the crowd still jumps out of their seats.

Told in four loosely connected chapters, each segment adds flavor to a mixtape-style structure that prioritizes attitude over order. The strongest pieces blend genre filmmaking with a real sense of time and place—literally and emotionally. You don’t need firsthand knowledge to feel like the filmmakers are paying homage to the streets, clubs, and courts that defined their youth, and it’s that energy that fuels the film when the story starts to fray.

The first chapter kicks things off with a high-octane showdown between punk rockers and neo-Nazis. There’s no subtlety here, and that’s a feature, not a bug. Ji-young Yoo’s Tina leads the charge in defending their music venue from a violent hate group, and the results are loud, confrontational, and splattered with a kind of scrappy DIY action that calls back to grindhouse cinema. The stylization—comic book flourishes, exaggerated violence, and a pulpy score—leans heavily into its rebellious tone. It’s the kind of sequence that works better on energy than depth, but when it lands, it lands!

Chapter two pivots to the rising hip-hop scene, following two ice cream shop workers by day and aspiring rap artists by night. Normani and Dominique Thorne bring chemistry and charm to the duo, and while their story doesn’t offer much new ground, it does nail the vibe. A climactic rap battle scene—colorful, brash, and celebratory—serves as a moment of triumph and a comment on gender barriers in the industry.

Things shift dramatically in the third story, a downbeat noir-like detour with Pedro Pascal playing Clint, a hitman looking to exit the business after a tragedy at home. The mood turns more contemplative, and the action slows to let grief and guilt take over. Pascal does a lot with minimal dialogue, grounding his segment with internal conflict and haunted eyes. This portion introduces the film’s strongest thematic thread—what does it take to walk away from violence when it’s been your entire identity?

The final chapter swings the pendulum back to wild genre stylization. Jay Ellis stars as a fictionalized version of an NBA legend who turns into a sword-wielding vigilante after a traumatic loss. Yes, you read that right. Equal parts revenge fantasy and sports mythmaking, this story is the most over-the-top, delivering fight choreography that’s deliberately exaggerated and stylized within an inch of its life. On pure entertainment value, it soars, but it’s also the least grounded in character. We understand the motive for revenge but not much else. The segment works best when viewed as a send-up of late '80s VHS revenge flicks and worst when it asks to be taken more seriously than it earns.

Throughout FREAKY TALES, the direction keeps the wheels turning. Boden and Fleck are having fun, and their grip on tone—while occasionally shaky—generally manages the shifts between realism and cartoonish fantasy. Their style is supported by Jac Fitzgerald’s lensing, which captures neon glow, alley grit, and crowd frenzy with equal flair. Raphael Saadiq’s music choices also deserve a shout; the hip-hop and punk needle drops are on point and era-accurate without leaning too hard on nostalgia.

There’s something undeniably bold about FREAKY TALES. It doesn’t play it safe. It throws together styles and stories that could clash—and often do—and still mostly finds a cadence. It embraces Oakland’s history without turning it into museum nostalgia and insists on letting its characters be messy, motivated, and larger-than-life.

In the end, it’s not about perfect structure or airtight plotting. This is about feeling, and the film captures plenty: the feeling of creative risk, community pride, and directors stepping back into their element with swagger. It’s a rare project—raw, specific, unhinged, and undeniably personal. Not every idea lands, and not every story connects, but it still leaves a lasting impression. And that is worth celebrating in an era of calculated, committee-designed studio fare.

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[photo courtesy of LIONSGATE]

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