After a snowy Wednesday in Park City dampened some of the buzz of previous festival arrivals, Sundance was drenched in sunshine on its opening day Thursday. With plenty of makeup to create an idyllic backdrop for selfies and social media updates, the festival crowd was lining up for the biggest film opening of the day: “Freaky Tales,” which occupied a coveted early evening slot at the Eccles Center. However, dozens of stand-ins were left out in the cold for the popular event, which kicked off the festival with a riotous show.
The film marks the return to Sundance of director Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, whose film Half Nelson was a 2006 Sundance favorite; The pair most recently helmed 2019’s non-indie superhero film “Captain Marvel.” “Freaky Tales” is a return to its moody roots: a horror-thriller and anthology comedy that pays homage to 1980s Oakland, and stars Pedro Pascal, Jay Ellis, Normani, Dominic Thorne, Ben Mendelsohn, Ji Young Yoo and the late Angus Cloud – not to mention a secret A-list appearance from an actor with Auckland ties that brought the house down.
The anthology unfolds as a collection of stories, including a villain-versus-Nazi storyline in Walter Hill’s “The Warriors,” and a rap battle involving Normani and Thorne. There’s also an intense revenge story featuring Pascal as a just-retired sports gambling enforcer. But the real show comes as a gruesome action movie starring Ellis, which features dozens upon dozens of white supremacists being murdered and offers several take on classic kung fu movies, including an obvious yellow jumpsuit that resembles the one worn by Bruce. Lee in “Death Game” and again for Uma Thurman in “Kill Bill.”
“Freaky Tales” is also a love letter to the Bay Area — specifically the region’s music, with a soundtrack filled with local favorites like E-40, Metallica and Too Short, who also appears in the film as narrator, and is an executive producer. , whose 1987 success gave the film its name.
The Sundance audience was animated during many of the film’s scenes, often clapping and cheering at the shocking moments of triumph and gore.
The film’s final title card, which read “In Loving Memory of Angus Cloud,” closed the screening with a thunderous round of applause. After taking to the stage for a Q&A, Fleck and Beaudin brought out many of the biggest names in the film, including Too Short, Pascal, Normani and Ellis.
When asked to recount his favorite day on set, Ellis shared a story about joking around with Pascal, Mendelsohn and Claude, who died last July at his family home in Auckland.
“Rest in peace Angus. He gave a fantastic performance.
The film is one of several looking for distribution, and the audience at Sundance was filled with executives from Netflix, Sony Pictures Classics and Neon.
The opening day of Sundance saw several buzzy premieres, including the debuts of the documentaries “Girls State” and “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” as well as “Veni Vidi Vici,” a harsh look at… The super rich.