Different Responses to Racism Shape Hilarious Sundance Premieres

  • January 23, 2024
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Photo by Autumn Thatcher: Freaky Tales star Jay Ellis joins WNBA star Sue Bird on a panel in Park City on January 19, 2024.

Different responses to racism are at the core of two very funny films from this year’s festival. 

Freaky Tales, the latest from the directing team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, is a stylish revisionist history romp. The pair made the excellent indie films Sugar, about a Latin ballplayer toiling in the minors in Iowa, and Half Nelson starring Ryan Gosling as a drug-addicted teacher, which debuted at Sundance back in 2006, as well as the superhero flick Captain Marvel. In Freaky Tales, Bay Area cultural touchstones of the late 80s are mashed up across four chapters intertwined by hella clever reveals, with underdogs being the theme that ties them all together.

Punks decide to fight back against skinheads. Female MCs tired of getting hit on by a sleazy officer at their day job accept an invite to join Too Short onstage for a rap battle. A henchman played by Pedro Pascal of The Mandalorian confronts tragedy outside a video store during ‘one last job’ before leaving behind a life of crime. And Jay Ellis of Insecure wows crowds as a meditating basketball star using sword fighting skills to avenge a heist of Golden State Warriors basketball team members while they’re playing the LA Lakers in the playoffs. 

What I didn’t see coming was the shockingly gory violence. It didn’t turn me off because most of the damage is inflicted upon neo nazis. The crowd loved it, I loved it. Freaky Tales might turn into more of a cult classic than a box office hit. Variety reports executives from Sony Pictures Classics, Neon, and Netflix attended the premier and hopefully it will get a distribution deal. 

The American Society of Magical Negroes premiered over the weekend and had a diverse crowd in stitches at Salt Lake City’s Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. The film is a satirical take on the term coined by Spike Lee about black supporting characters who don’t have their own internal storylines. They only exist to support white protagonists reaching their goals. In this film, a wizard of sorts, portrayed by David Alan Grier, recruits a young man played by Justice Smith into a secret society of magical Black folks whose job is soothing white people’s anxieties. 

What’s most daring about the film written and directed by Kobi Libii is how at first it pretends this is a good thing. The movie’s magical negroes monitor white fragility so they can redirect the fear into healthier outcomes for Black folks. The construct only holds up briefly, because it clearly promotes white supremacy to suggest Black folks be valued according to their utility to whites.

The corporate culture setting tees up clueless white privilege with hilarious results. Clients of the secret society are gauged by a white tears meter. While there are plenty of laughs, and the film is likely to stir up controversy, I’m not convinced it needed to be a romantic comedy too, but maybe that will add to its mass appeal. Focus Features will release the film in theaters in March.

For KRCL and Rocky Mountain Community Radio, I’m Gavin Dahl.

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