Film Review – Wild Tales
2 min read
A series of six short tales with revenge at their heart, Relatos Salvajes (Wild Tales) questions how much distance there is between civilized behavior and barbarism. As wicked as it is funny, as surprising as it is witty, it focuses on the large and small inequities of life that plague us, that hound us, and that threaten to break us but that we are largely forced to overlook or ignore in order to maintain a sense of dignity, in order to protect our egos and our social reputations.
Presented as a series of vignettes, we are faced with a scorned man who cooks up a devilish plan for everyone who has ever wronged him, a woman coming face to face with the man who drove her father to suicide, the perils of acting upon road rage, the frustration of a series of unwarranted parking tickets, the affluent parents who wish to protect their child, and finally a cheating husband and his new wife’s very public revenge.
Written and directed by Damián Szifrón, Wild Tales takes its audience on a journey into the darkest corners of the human heart. Szifron effortlessly creates an unhinged and volatile tone perfect for these deranged stories. A series of too close and off-balance camera angles coupled with abrasive sound add to the hysteria and the hilarity.
The ethical dilemmas and situations these characters find themselves in have the audience questioning what their responses to similar situations would be, wondering if they would have the guts or the gall to react the same way in which these characters do. The way that the characters deal with their predicaments are indeed the stuff of wicked fantasies that we are all guilty of entertaining. You will laugh, cringe, squirm and at times be compelled to cheer.
While all the acting is impeccable, it would be remiss not to mention Erica Rivas as the scorned bride. Her performance is quite literally off-the-hook.
At just under two hours, it feels more like a sneeze. This rollercoaster keeps the fun going from start to finish, threatening to go off the rails at each new twist and turn until it careens into the gates in its final moments and screeches to a stop. Hilarious, wicked, deranged. Wild Tales is comedy at its blackest.
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