The raucous Sundance Movie Competition premiere of “Freaky Tales” included one somber second because the forged of the ode to all issues Oakland paused to acknowledge their late co-star Angus Cloud.

“Relaxation In Peace to Angus,” Jay Ellis, who performs basketball star Sleepy Floyd within the movie, stated. “He gave such an important efficiency.”

Cloud, greatest identified for his work as Fezco, a drug seller with a coronary heart of gold, in HBO’s “Euphoria,” died in 2023 of an unintentional drug overdose. He was 25. “Freaky Tales” is one among Cloud’s last movies; he performs a burglar in a smaller supporting function. Ellis famous that Cloud “was there to have a lot enjoyable” throughout taking pictures of the movie’s climactic motion sequence — a blood-drenched finale that may’t be spoiled right here.

“Freaky Tales” is about within the Bay Space in 1987 over the course of a single day. Within the film the lives of a depressed hitman, a bunch of punk rock followers, a pair of aspiring hip-hop artists and an NBA phenom collide in surprising methods.

There’s additionally a buzzy cameo from an Oscar-winning actor with Oakland ties.

“Freak Tales” was directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the group behind “Half Nelson,” “Mississippi Grind” and “Captain Marvel.” The movie is one among a number of searching for distribution and the viewers at Sundance was stuffed with executives from Netflix, Sony Footage Classics and Neon.

Fleck stated that the film was loosely impressed by his childhood in Oakland and among the native legends he noticed similar to Floyd and rapper Too $hort. “That is kind of my 12 12 months outdated fantasy of a film,” he informed the packed home at Sundance’s Eccles Theater on Thursday night time.

“Nobody else was going to make this film,” he added. “I simply needed to make it to see it…and naturally I dragged Anna together with me for the journey.”

Along with Ellis and Cloud, the forged of “Freaky Tales” consists of Pedro Pascal, Normani Kordei Hamilton, Dominique Thorne and Ben Mendelsohn. “Freaky Tales” is devoted to Cloud’s reminiscence, a tribute that got here through the movie’s finish credit.

Sundance’s opening day has featured a number of buzzy premieres, together with the debuts of the documentaries “Women State” and “Tremendous/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” in addition to “Veni Vidi Vici,” a scabrous take a look at the ultra-wealthy.