Freaky Tales
Review: A new release this year (well the film actually debuted at Sundance in 2024, but just received it’s theatrical release), this movie was one that on my radar for one reason only, but ended up being a solid watch. The reason it was on my radar was leading man, Pedro Pascal and that was really all I knew about the film going into it. The film is a multi-genre film that features several (I believe it was 5) storylines that all interconnect in 1984 San Francisco. The film blends action, comedy, martial arts, coming of age, & sci-fi to create ‘Freaky Tales.’ Each storyline was very solid and were all strong enough to justify being their own full length film to be honest. The film gave me major Quentin Tarantino vibes, thought less bloody & not to the same level of execution (reminded me specifically of Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ & ‘Jackie Brown’). The film draws from the star power of it’s only real A-list lead, Pedro Pascal, but also has a lot of other promising and well known actors. You have the likes of Jay Ellis (‘Insecure,’ ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ and recently, Netflix’s ‘Running Point’), Ben Mendelsohn (‘Captain Marvel’ & ‘Rogue One’), popstar Normani, Dominique Thorne (‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’), Angus Cloud (RIP, known as Fezco in ‘Euphoria’), & Jack Champion (Spider in ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’). Pedro Pascal isn’t the only A-list star in the film though, as a minor (but hilarious) appearance is made from the one and only Tom Hanks. Jay Ellis plays a fictionalized version of Sleepy Floyd, and I’m sure you have no idea who that is unless you’re from the Bay Area or a big basketball fan. Floyd played for the Golden State Warriors from 1983-1987 and was an All-Star for the team. I personally am familiar with Floyd & laughed when I realized Ellis was playing him because of the utter randomness. There were actually several moments I laughed out loud during this film, and a majority of them came from Ellis’s performance and his character’s epic fight scene at the end of the film (a very ‘Kill Bill’ style fight).
High: The vibes in this movie were immaculate. That may be a crazy thing to say as my high, but truly I walked out of this movie just thinking ‘wow, that was a cool film.’ It wasn’t my favorite 2025 film & was definitely not the best, but may take the spot as the coolest.
Low: The film is just over 1 hour & 45 minutes, which I really appreciated since I saw it at 10:00 on a week night. But I do really think it could’ve benefitted from a longer runtime. I think an additional 5 minutes into each individual story would’ve helped them feel even more fleshed out, and the movie would only be 2 hours and 10 minutes, which is still reasonable.
Rating: 7.5/10
