Review of Wild Tales (2014) by Gregory G — 18 Apr 2015
This gleefully amoral black comedy from Argentina is probably the best anthology film ever made. Six short stories - each running about twenty minutes - show characters in contemporary Argentina overcome by revenge and retribution.
Some stories work better than others, but there are no lulls or uneven segments, and a few could be short form classics. It's also beneficial to have one filmmaker preside over the material. Writer-director Damian Szifron's raucous humor and exuberant energy mark him as a major international filmmaker.
Each episode takes a simple conflict that builds into a comic opera of vengeance. In the prologue, "Pasternak," a model chats with fellow passengers and discovers everyone on the flight wronged her ex-boyfriend, and the cockpit is locked.
"The Rats," features a waitress serving a customer whose actions led her father to suicide; she wants revenge but is morally torn, so the cook suggests rat poison. In "Road to Hell," a patrician man and a proletariat man turn road rage into a Road Runner cartoon as if conceived by Rod Serling.
"Bombita" is about a demolitions expert confronted by government bureaucracy over parking violations that boils over. "The Deal," involves a hit-and-run accident that leads to bribery and extortion among the accused's father, gardener, attorney, and prosecutor that results in an ironic, if predictable, resolution.
The final story, "'Till Death Us Do Part," is the best. It begins as a celebratory wedding reception until the bride discovers the groom had an affair with a guest. The bride turns the tables on the groom until the reception becomes a comic orgy of marital turmoil that ends in libidinal bliss.
As the bride, Erica Rivas gives an expansive comic performance of hysteria that is peerless. The festival audience I saw this with was rapturous. Pedro Almodovar is one of the producers. With Ricardo Darin, Oscar Martinez, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Rita Cortese, Julieta Zylberberg, Dario Grandinetti.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
This review of Wild Tales (2014) was written by Gregory G on 18 Apr 2015.
Wild Tales has generally received very positive reviews.
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