Freaky Tales

Those immersed in the vibrant cultural scene of Oakland, California, during the late 1980s are more apt to appreciate Freaky Tales than outsiders.

After all, the film is a rambunctious love letter to its time and place that leans into its nostalgic retro vibe, from vintage cars to fashion to pop culture.

Although it has style and attitude to spare, this freewheeling anthology of loosely interconnected oddball subplots from directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Captain Marvel) is a hit-or-miss exercise in ambition surpassing execution.

The film follows a collection of misfits and rebels, plus some slimeball authority figures, through an anarchic music-fueled landscape as a mysterious green light darts through the sky.

We’re first introduced to some friends at a grungy nightclub threatened by Nazi skinheads looking to ruin the fun. Then we meet aspiring performers Barbie (Dominique Thorne) and Entice (Normani), who work in an ice cream shop while dreaming of fame and fortune in a male-dominated industry.

Shifting gears, another vignette follows Clint (Pedro Pascal), an enforcer rethinking his life choices as his past is catching up to him. And finally, we have Golden State Warriors star Eric “Sleepy” Floyd (Jay Ellis) following up a legendary game with some martial-arts revenge on a corrupt cop (Ben Mendelsohn).

Some noteworthy Oakland natives pop in to enhance the authenticity, including rapper Too $hort, who narrates the film and whose 1987 track provided the title.

Pascal’s segment is the best of the bunch, reflecting a level of depth and focus that’s largely missing from the other gimmicky or tossed-off sidebars. The final chapter is the funniest and outside-the-box craziest, although efforts to tie them all together are more strained than clever.

There’s some fun to be had along the way, such as when someone references Tom Hanks as “the guy from Splash” in the dialogue, and later Hanks plays along with an amusing cameo as a chatterbox video-store owner.

However, the underlying narrative strands in the screenplay by Boden and Fleck — the latter of whom grew up in the Bay Area — generally feel silly and over-the-top rather than satirically relevant or substantial.

Taking on the same scrappy blue-collar mentality as its characters, Freaky Tales is an eccentric time capsule for a bygone era that seems better remembered than revisited.

Rated R, 106 minutes.