Review of Wild Tales (2014) by Jesse O — 23 Jun 2015

This is one of the best anthology films in recent memory. Hell, it might be one of the best anthology films that has ever been made. Part of the problem, particularly in a lot of recent anthology films, is that it's a collaboration between different filmmakers ala ABCs Of Death, the VHS series, among others.

And I don't think there's a problem with that at all, but that's where a lot of the inconsistency in quality comes in. You bring in more chefs to the kitchen and the higher the chances are you get an ingredient that just doesn't mix.

VHS: Viral proved this. Though, to be fair, the quality of the shorts themselves were considerably lower than both films in that series, though there was one excellent short in there. I think this film's strength lies in the fact that, despite it being various stories of different people from different societal backgrounds, there's only one person handling the creative aspect of it.

While they're all very different shorts, ranging from a flight attendant poisoning the pilot and co-pilot of a plane that's carrying all the people who treated him negatively during his life and forcing it to crash, to a very extreme example of road rage, to poisoning the man who forced a waitress' father's suicide, to being fed up with the injustices of the government, extortion and blackmail and, finally, a wedding from hell.

All very different types of stories, but all offering up their own little slice of dark and twisted entertainment. You cannot say this about a lot of anthology films, but every segment is, at worst, good.

And more than several of them are actually really fucking great. The first segment, with the plane crash is short and to the point, but absolutely excellent. The second short, the one in the diner, is probably the 'weakest' of them all.

This isn't a complaint in the least, as this is one also really fucking good, but it just doesn't reach the levels of insanity the other segments reached. The third short, the one about the road rage, is another excellent short.

The fourth one, the one about the car being towed away is probably my personal favorite. It just has a great narrative with an incredibly satisfying conclusion. It's probably the one that most people will relate to, since it focuses more on the little bullshit ways the government tries to fuck you over.

The fifth one, about the blackmail, is also a really good one. It's probably, out of all of them, the best written and the best acted. Of course, when your cast is as stacked as this film is, any victory in terms of acting quality is won by inches and not by miles, but the penultimate one, still, in my mind, is the best in terms of quality.

The wedding from hell, which is the last short, starts off a little slowly but, once again, builds to an excellent conclusion about the ups and downs a new married couple faces during their own wedding.

Fuck me sideways, this film is fantastic. It's ridiculously funny, in a dark and twisted way of course. I cannot say enough good about this film. I don't think I can honestly do this film justice.

It's something that has to be seen. It's one of the few anthology films that I can say is entertaining from beginning to end, instead of it hitting peaks and valleys. Incredible anthology, incredible film.

I absolutely loved this. Highly recommended.