Boasting an amazing pre-title sequence, especially in the light of the recent French Alps aviation tragedy, WILD TALES is an anthology work which has revenge as its thematic thread.
Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Academy Awards and chosen as the closing night feature of the recent Spanish Film Festival, WILD TALES is a cathartic experience to anyone who has endured road rage, unmitigated bureaucracy, rudeness or incivility, or any slight, sling or arrow from outrageous fortune. In other words, every single one of us.
Comprising six stand-alone vignettes all linked by a dark humour and rage against the absurdities of societal and individual fallibilities, WILD TALES is a compendium of modern day trial and tribulations, splendidly handled by director Damian Szifron and an ensemble cast that give us a vicarious sense of righteousness and resistance.
After its astonishing opening sequence, possibly the most unforgettable so far this year, WILD TALES takes us to the terrestrial terror of a couple of disrespectful patrons at a greasy spoon restaurant where the waitress and cook deliberate and dispute the appropriate action.
The third instalment has the pedal to the metal in a farcical, absurd but ultimately deadly case of road rage.
The fourth vignette is a story of an impounded car compounding to a literally explosive dénouement, with bull headed bureaucracy unresponsive to reasoning and triggering a response of furious frustration.
The penultimate episode is the darkest piece in this potpourri where police and prosecutors and parents conspire to cover up a crime and let an innocent take the fall.
The finale is set at a wedding where the happiest of occasions turns into a post nuptial nightmare.
Rage and revenge can be avoided by respect, civility and politeness. In WILD TALES we have to be put in the dark to see the light.
