3200 Grand Avenue, Oakland
April 23, 2025
The trailer for “Freaky Tales” isn’t very inspiring. Focusing mostly on blood, guts, and violence, it fails to capture how funny this film is. That’s movie marketing, I guess. My partner and I weren’t particularly hopeful, but were excited to see the film anyway, though. Some of its scenes had been filmed mere blocks from our house. And Susan Alegria, the movie’s Art Director, is my partner’s friend. Turns out the flick is violent alright, and a lot of blood is spilled in its overlapping four-part tale, including a few ingeniously hilarious over-the-top gore shots.
The lights went down at the Grand Lake Theatre, a bullshit Marvel movie preview showed. And then… THWACK!!! This film was a riot! A tasty confection that doesn’t take itself too seriously, it has intrigue, good pacing, a clever sort of “Pulp Fiction” narrative structure, and loads of yuks. It contains many sly movie references and has a superb soundtrack featuring the likes of The Avengers, E-40, Sly & The Family Stone, and Public Image Ltd. And the Grand Lake is itself one of the stars: we could see the very building we were sitting inside right from the story’s first chapter, another delicious surprise.
Written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and narrated by Oakland hip-hop star Too $hort, who is also an executive producer, “Freaky Tales” is set in 1987 Oakland, California. Divided into four chapters, each tale is about comeuppance where revenge is a dish best served piping hot. And from time to time a green lightning bolt splits the sky.
The first chapter, "Strength in Numbers: The Gilman Strikes Back,” has a group of punks exiting the Grand Lake Theatre when a couple truckloads of skinheads drive by. They then show up at the legendary Berkeley punk venue 924 Gilman and trash the place, beating up those in attendance. But the punks decide to fight back. There is a gloriously cartoony battle, complete with animated sound effect texts reminiscent of the 1960s TV series “Batman,” and comedically slow-mo segments.
I rolled my eyes at the teens, caricatures of 1980s punks (hey, I was a “real” one). I mean, I don’t remember anyone ever saying “hella.” But the flick teaches you the joke you’ll eventually laugh at, and so it wasn’t long before my suspension of disbelief was complete.
“Don't Fight the Feeling,” the second chapter, follows friends Entice (Normani) and Barbie (Dominique Thorne) as they put up with a crooked, racist, creepy cop (Ben Mendelsohn, excellent throughout the film) and perform at the nightclub Sweet Jimmie’s as musical duo “Danger Zone.” They share a tension-filled onstage rap battle with young Too $hort, played by DeMario Symba Driver.
Did I mention that in all the film’s chapters a mysterious glowing green presence shows up once in a while? It’s an energy field of some kind that seems to aid all underdogs. It isn’t explained, but is connected to Psytopics, a “Spiritual Learning Center” run by Golden State Warrior Sleepy Floyd whose ads show up on television, billboards, and bus stop benches…
The strongest chapter, “Born to Mack,” sees Pedro Pascal as debt collector/enforcer Clint, employee of “The Guy.” He wants to quit a life of crime and focus on his wife who’s pregnant with their first child; but not before one more job. He visits a video store/secret gambling parlor, manned by store owner Hank (Tom Hanks, once an Oaklander himself) who then disappears, replaced by Sam Skolnik (a comic I instantly recognized from a show at Drake’s Dealership last year).
The final chapter—an uproariously gory coup de grâce—is titled “The Legend of Sleepy Floyd.” There has been a string of burglaries targeting local NBA players’ homes, and while the titular Floyd (Jay Ellis) is on the hardwood at the Oakland Arena for the 1987 Western Conference Semifinals with the Los Angeles Lakers, his house is invaded. The burglary goes tragically wrong and Sleepy Floyd visits terrible vengeance upon those responsible.
We exited the Grand Lake, just as the punks had in the first scene, and I wanted a photo of the marquee. I spotted a kid who looked oddly familiar. “You look like you were in ‘Freaky Tales’,” I said.
“I was!” he replied. Turns out he played one of the punks, “Tom.”
Chachi Delgado, 24, told me he’d attended Oakland Technical High School and then Oakland School for the Arts, and that this was his first feature film. He was waiting for his grandmother, visiting from Texas, to see the film he appears in. It was his fourth theater viewing. He was outgoing and personable, and we chatted for a while before parting ways.
“Freaky Tales” is an absolute hoot! Or perhaps I should say it's “hella” funny. We had a ton of fun watching it, enjoying its many Oakland references, and being nostalgic for the Bay Area of the 1980s. And I simply couldn’t get over the fact that we’d run into a cast member afterwards purely by chance. The power of the mysterious glowing green presence that emerges in Oakland from time to time? Maybe...
Hungry for more timely film content?
The papal conclave at the Vatican begins on May 7th to elect Pope Francis' successor.
Read Agustín Maes' review of the film "Conclave" below, and our coverage of other films at Grand Lake Theater here.
Agustín Maes
