Wild Tales

Greetings again from the darkness. Do you often get accused of having a slightly demented sense of humor? Do you have secret crazy thoughts of seeking revenge on those who have wronged you? If so, writer/director Damian Szifron has a collection of short stories just for you!

Nominated for Best Foreign Language Oscar, Argentina's entry is just now opening in the Dallas market where I live. To say Wild Tales is a wild ride would be quite an understatement. There are six short stories blended together, and while you may not recognize the theme immediately, it doesn't take long before rage and retribution jump to the forefront in these seemingly typical slices of everyday life.

The best short stories make a quick grab for attention, and manage to convey character and setting from the beginning. The writing is crucial and can easily collapse in the hands of a less-proficient short story writer. But when it works, it's fascinating to watch, and Mr. Szifron has a real talent for making us laugh in the midst of truly awful situations.

Not to give away any details, but the six stories involve: a remarkable "coincidence" on a flight, an unwelcome customer at a local diner, a close-quarters brawl at a bridge, the frustration of dealing with "the system", misguided parental instincts in protecting their kid, and the most wheels-off wedding reception ever filmed.

If you are ever searching for an example of a dark comedy, this one will provide clarity. The seemingly unrelated stories are woven together through payback, though the price is often pretty high. Mr. Szifron's stories remind us that life is not fair, but when it's happening to someone else, we can still laugh about it.

This Argentine film that found itself nominated for the 2014 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award comes to us from director Damián Szifrón who has crafted a feature film comprised of a series of 6 vignettes/small stories about human beings from all walks of (Argentine) life who are all tested and taken to their limits ... until they finally lose control. While mostly disastrous the film is also WILDly thrilling and wholly original in its daring cheekiness ... as the film is a bitter dark comedy (with tinges of brutal drama).

It is a film about a myriad group of people on a plane; a young waitress who still finds herself grieving over a family tragedy of the past; an encounter between two men from different social classes on a desolate highway; a man growing tired of the rat race of life in which we are all destined to lose; the aftermath of a horrible automobile accident; and a wedding reception like none you've ever seen before. All feature one or two characters taken to the edge ...

It is how each of them handles their various situations that give us our WILD stories. Fascinatingly grim at times, the film almost always miraculously produces laughter and grins. Much of the laughter might be heavily muffled as one chuckles under his/her breath as others around them fail to see the director's (WILDly) wicked sense of humor come into play in some of the film's intense situations; but the dark tone pervades the entire film.

While the film is most definitely tragic in many instances, Wild Tales is a comedy of errors about human nature and who we are. Some can watch this and most-likely not pick up even a hint of humor; but it is there ... and it is fantastically facetious.

Wildly thrilling. Wildly fun. Wildly original. It is courageously wild.

Never watched any Argentine/Spanish film before. Actually, the number of foreign language (ie. other than English and Hindi) films I have watched till date is not even two digit. Still, this movie was mind-blowing!! Wild Tales, is a package of 6 short films which are dark and explosive comedies. All of them has the theme of revenge strikingly common and each one of them is unique and funny in its own way. Each one of them puts forth wild yet realistic situations. The first short story is the shortest of them and is shown pre-credits.Its story of a psych who is not even seen on the screen who makes revenge plan which ends on a bang giving us an overly wild ending. The second film slightly more dark and longer, will make you think before deciding what is right and what is wrong. Third one even longer, is my favorite alongside the fourth. Its violent and brutally hilarious with explosive ending(literally). The fourth one sheds light on realistic situation of a common man troubled by the abusive government system. Another explosion in the climax(again literally)! The fifth slightly less on humor quotient but portrays the human characteristic of greed perfectly. Its darker and has a shocking finale! Th last one, longest and wildest of them all will take you to one of the craziest weddings you have ever seen. Beneath its madness it subtly touches upon the issues of trust and betrayals in human relations.

Besides the common notion of revenge and letting oneself lose control in rage, all these tales also focus on how tiniest of our actions can lead to monstrous consequences. The comedy is satirical and dark still its outright hilarious in many scenes. There are many actors (each story has different cast), can't highlight anyone as most of them have done a good job. Director Damian Szifron executes all the ridiculous madness and explosive twists with sheer brilliance leaving dazed at the end of each story. The soundtrack is also quirky and beautiful.The two hours fly away like a breeze. Even if you don't understand the language you will be so invested that after sometime you won't even realize that you are watching a Non- English film. Highly enjoyable!

RATING: [4/5]

Watched last night at the theater with my girlfriend.

It's a compilations of 6 tales, but they don't have the same type of lenght, humor or darkness. Each one is unique.

1) Airplane tale: fantastic, hilarating and surrealistic story to open the series.

2) Coffee shop tale: shorter, but dark and makes you wonder what's "freedom" for some people.

3) Road tale: excellent. A really LOT of violence and a little bit of humor makes this one of the best tales in the movie.

4) Human limit tale: a man that's having a couple of really bad days explode when he runs out of patiente. Great acting.

5) Accident tale: 90% darkness. And the fact that could be a very possible story makes it even darker. Shocking finale.

6) Wedding tale: almost impossible to qualify. Hilarious for the most part, but at the end, it will make you wonder to whom you are spending your whole life with.

Seeing this compilation in a theater for the price of one, its a damn good deal if you ask me.

Go watch it.

Not only is the acting fantastic, but every single one of the stories paints a picture of each of us at our most gloriously, base, human-like moments.

If aliens exist, THIS is the film they should watch to learn more about us than any amount of probing might ever give away. :)

Great first watch. Excellent re-watch. Highly recommend.