Les Nouveaux Sauvages

There will be times within us all when rage surrounds, when the urge to lash and kick the world compounds, when the consequence goes missing, and you're left distraught and wishing, that you hadn't set that foot outside the bounds. This result will more than likely cost you dear, as you cascade, crush, curtail all your fears, when adrenaline explodes, hackles raised you're on your toes, seeing red - but there is nothing else that's clear. As the dust begins to settle consequences, of your actions may reveal extreme expenses, incarceration in a place, after losing more than face, reputation and your life now in cessation.

The movie is actually 6 short films, all related by brutal violence motivated by different situations. Family. Society. Government. It works very well like that, lasting over 120 minutes that go by quickly. It feels very fluid. Szifrón's eye is very precise. You can tell everything was very well thought. I wouldn't say this is a philosophical film, but it is clever entertainment, that makes you think if this wild tales are actually that wild... Even though this stories are taken to the extreme, everything feels somehow possible when you look back.

Darkly humorous. 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.

Perhaps the best omnibus dark comedy ever made. This movie is funny, it explores some of the darker parts of humanity but it does so with so much wit and intelligence. It was a great hit in South America, and understandably so. Despite dark and cynical take on the human condition, the movie is lighthearted and highly watchable, and uncompromisingly original.

This is a very watchable and often extremely funny anthology of six short films. The dialogue is in Spanish, the director and settings are Argentine. The stories are all slightly-over-the-top-realism in the manner of Almodóvar tinged with the dark surrealism of the Buñuel of The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. The scenarios are graphic rather than subtle, but they all work well most of the time, because most of us can identify with the main characters, recognizing how little it can take to shake us from complacency into violence.

The official English title "Wild Tales" suggests madcap craziness. But these tales are savage ("selvaje" in the original Spanish), a word that better suggests the ferocious beast lurking not far under the skin of all of us. The beast can be unchained by nothing more complicated than being cut off by a driver who doesn't signal or finding that our car has been impounded for an unwitting parking infraction.

In the first and shortest episode, what appears to be an absurd series of coincidences linking all the passengers on a plane turns out to have a logical and sinister rationale. The ending explains why in the opening scene the woman checking in at the airport is told that she will not earn frequent flyer points for her trip! And the final, longest episode hilariously tracks the chaotic degeneration of a stereotypical Jewish wedding party, initiated by the bride's discovery that the groom has been cheating on her with one of the guests. This is not a film for young children or for people who aren't willing to admit how close they sometimes are to dissolving in animal rage.