Review of Wild Tales (2014) by Joe H — 04 Mar 2015

Wild Tales has been called both "fun" and "funny," but it's neither of those things. It's a gnarly Argentine anthology film whose unconnected chapters straddle the line between black comedy and gruesome soap opera; it may appeal to those who found humor in Gone Girl or the Saw movies.

Black comedies always run the risk of being too black to be comical, and I'd say director and writer Damián Szifron is trying to find humor in things that aren't humorous, but his presence is apathetic and his writing is lazy.

..so is he even trying? Wild Tales is too focused on wallowing in its own awfulness to crack very many jokes, and when it does, they never register above cheap cynicism.