Wild Tales [Relatos salvajes] **** (2014, Ricardo Darin, Darío Grandinetti, María Marull, Mónica Villa) – Movie Review

Writer-director Damián Szifrón’s lovingly crafted compendium of six deadly tales of apocalyptic revenge is an absolute corker. For Szifrón, apparently, revenge is a dish best served boiling hot. The surreal, satirical black humour, mayhem and murder are all brilliantly handled, touching raw nerves in the audience. It’s ultra confident, energised and stylish, with honed scripts and ideal performances.

Unusually for an anthology film, all the short stories are equally great, though it’s easy to have a personal favourite – the explosives expert who parks legally but whose car is wrong towed away, or the road rage episode, or the final wedding celebration tale, maybe. Certainly it starts as it means to go on, with an aircraft crash involving a planeload of passengers all of whom have been assembled by as an unseen man bent on revenge.

Almost any one of the short films would make a fine feature-length movie, so, with new movie ideas so very lacking right now, you almost feel it’s an embarrassment of riches. Probably everyone in the audience will identify with at least one of the characters in the movie – and considering how way out they are, that’s a real scary idea! Some of the tales even have a happy ending, and that’s another real scary idea!

Wild Tales is the seventh film from Argentina to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the third in a row with Ricardo Darin as a star. Also in the cast are Darío Grandinetti, María Marull and Mónica Villa.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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