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FREAKY TALES
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s action-comedy anthology Freaky Tales plays like a mixtape with four interconnected chapters. Set in 1987 Oakland, the film takes fun creative liberties with underreported history, opening with a story of local punks standing up to white supremacists harassing their music venue. In another story, the rap duo Danger Zone’s members Entice (Normani) and Barbie (Dominique Thorne) get invited to battle rapper Too $hort (DeMario Symba Driver). Normani’s film debut was stellar as an ambitious young woman finding confidence in a male-dominated profession. For his final theatrical release, the late Angus Cloud plays Travis, a subordinate working with a corrupt cop planning to rob the home of Golden State Warrior Sleepy Floyd (former Portlander Jay Ellis). Clint (Pedro Pascal), a recently retired hit man seeking revenge, stays in the background for the movie’s first half. While his chapter is integral to the overarching plot, it felt weakest compared to the hyperstylized, music-centered companion stories. Boden and Fleck wrote a collection of interesting characters and gripping plots that audiences can invest in comfortably. The combination of a strong soundtrack and homages to films like The Lost Boys, Scanners and Kill Bill only heighten the overall experience. R. RUDY VALDEZ. Laurelhurst Theater, Studio One Theaters, Cinemark and Regal locations.
THE FRIEND
Who fixes the fixer? Who emotionally supports the emotional support animal? These are the touchy-feely psych profile questions that animate The Friend—the movie adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s National Book Award-winning novel. If you’ve seen only the trailer and think The Friend is a Naomi Watts and Bill Murray two-hander, well, the central relationship is actually between Watts and a 150-pound Great Dane. Apollo is the refugee pup that Bill Murray’s Walter—a celebrated author who dies suddenly—leaves in the reluctant custody of his writing protégée and best friend, Iris (Watts). Most of The Friend then unfolds as a light, occasionally frustrating sitcom. A lonely, overwhelmed woman frets about why her rent-controlled Manhattan apartment will not let a giant dog live with her. The jokes that land are more lip-curlers than knee-slappers, like when Iris takes Apollo to a stuffy literary agent’s office and the receptionist pours Fiji water in a baking dish for the sad-eyed doggo. But just as The Friend is overstating its case of Iris getting sidelined in her own story, Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s adaptation gets busy complicating this whole mess of whether Apollo represents Walter’s postmortem neediness or both the dog and its new caretaker ought to start prioritizing themselves. Is it an emotionally manipulative dog dramedy? Yes, but counterpoint—who’s a good boy?! R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Cinema 21, Laurelhurst Theater, Living Room Theaters, AMC, Cinemark and Regal locations.
THE WOMAN IN THE YARD
A family endures tragedy and finds themselves ensnared in a nightmare in Jaume Collet-Serra’s psychological horror The Woman in the Yard. A fatal accident bridges a portal into the unknown, wherein the afflicted family doesn’t know much about their unexpected, solitary visitor—a veiled woman sitting in front of their rural home—only that her ominous nature is clear. The tension delivered transports viewers into a fever dream that bolsters white-knuckled attention. Shadows are double entendres. What’s scarier: the looming darkness cast by an unknown figure, or the unexamined darkness in our own hearts? Collet-Serra’s horror roots sprouted in ‘00s commercial flops later redeemed by fans, like House of Wax and Orphan. In 2016, he had me rooting for the shark to put us all out of our misery and kill Blake Lively in The Shallows, but The Woman in the Yard paints the picture of a complex, likable yet flawed family. Danielle Deadwyler’s stage background aids her ability to scrupulously emote the film’s lead, Ramona. Deadwyler is one you cannot avert your eyes from, as well as one to watch for in the future. Solid performances by the film’s children, Tay (Peyton Jackson) and Annie (Estella Kahiha), add to the family’s believability. The film’s metaphorical message may be too cerebral to those expecting a classic paranormal slasher, but for anyone willing to see the scariness of their shadow self, The Woman in the Yard spooks and shines. PG-13. NICOLE ECKRICH. Studio One Theaters, AMC, Cinemark and Regal locations.
DEATH OF A UNICORN
If there’s anything going for Death of a Unicorn, it’s that it doesn’t waste time delivering on its title. Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) aren’t 10 minutes into their weekend mountain trip before they crash into and kill a mythical horned equine. The plot’s first complication comes from the Leopolds (Richard E. Grant, Téa Leoni, Will Poulter), Elliot’s pharma exec bosses, who learn that the creature’s carcass has healing properties and immediately set to work monetizing their discovery. This is where the film gets its would-be satirical edge, which sadly never rises above surface-level observations on privilege and avarice. The most the Leopolds offer are a few chuckles as they rationalize their greed as acts of charity, underlining the obvious fraud of the “effective altruism” movement. Unicorn’s second complication arrives in its back half, when the foal’s parents come looking for payback and put the horror in this horror-comedy. There’s some novelty to seeing gruesome kills coming from these particular monsters, but once again it doesn’t amount to much. The best thing Unicorn has going for it is its cast, a mix of movie stars and character actors doing their best to elevate rote roles from a middling script (Ortega in particular reminds audiences why she’s Gen Z’s premier scream queen). Death of a Unicorn is ultimately wasted potential: a furtive premise undercut by mediocre execution. Creature feature fans may find something redeeming in the rampage, but the whole affair is ultimately less than the sum of its parts. R. MORGAN SHAUNETTE. Laurelhurst Theater, Living Room Theaters, St. Johns Twin Cinemas, Studio One Theaters, AMC, Cinemark and Regal locations.