Aarcflick

 When 'Half Nelson' co-directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden started out, everyone was ripping off 'Pulp Fiction.' Arriving late to the party, the duo recycles that template with a weary pastiche set in the 1987 East Bay. Following the studio hit "Captain Marvel," indie duo Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden blow a big, self-congratulatory kiss to the late '80s East Bay with the nostalgia-fueled "Freaky Tales." Berkeley-born Fleck was barely 10 years old at the beginning of 1987, when this overstuffed anthology film is set, which explains the dazzling way it romanticizes the era's defining subcultures (with Boden presumably doing her best to amplify the film's incredibly specific, "you had to be there" appeal). Directors: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck Writers: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck Stars: Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis In four distinct but intertwined chapters—populated mostly by new faces, plus the grizzled but engaging Pedro Pascal—...