Freaky Tales (2024) review

Four weakly-connected vignettes depict a couple of odd happenings in Oakland in the year 1987: the first ("Strength in Numbers") has punk kids, including Lucid (Jack Champion) and Tina (Ji-Young Yoo), defending their club from Nazi scum, the second ("Don't Fight the Feeling") shows female MCs Barbie (Dominique Thorne) and Entice (Normani) invited to engage in a rap battle against Too $hort (DeMario Symba Driver), the third ("Born to Mack") involves career criminal Clint (Pedro Pascal) paying the price for past offenses, and in the last segment ("The Legend of Sleepy Floyd"), a basketball player (Jay Ellis) seeks revenge after robbers break into his home and kill his girlfriend.  Although I do appreciate showing the much-maligned California city some love (co-director Fleck grew up there), it's lousy as a piece of "nostalgia," doesn't live up to the word "freaky" in the title and each section comes across as a poor imitation of another movie (The Warriors, 8 Mile, Blade etc.).  The few bright moments come courtesy of its supporting cast: Tom Hanks pops in as a knowledgeable video store clerk, NFL running back Marshawn Lynch is on-screen for about five seconds as a bus driver, Ben Mendelsohn is scuzzy cop and, in one of his final performances, Angus Cloud (who was fantastic in Euphoria on HBO) appears as a henchman.