Directed by: Damián Szifrón.
Written by: Damián Szifrón.
Starring: Darío Grandinetti (Salgado), María Marull (Isabel), Mónica Villa (Profesora Leguizamón), Rita Cortese (Cocinera), Julieta Zylberberg (Moza), César Bordón (Cuenca), Leonardo Sbaraglia (Diego), Walter Donado (Mario), Ricardo Darín (Simón), Nancy Dupláa (Victoria), Oscar Martínez (Mauricio), María Onetto (Helena), Osmar Núñez (Lawyer), Germán de Silva (Casero), Erica Rivas (Romina), Diego Gentile (Ariel).
The
brief opening segment of Wild Tales sets the tone for the five shorts that will
follow. A pair of people – a model and a music critic – are talking on a plane
when they realize they have a tenuous connection. At one point, the model was
dating a classical composer – things ended badly, but she assures the critic
she still likes him – when the critic asks for her ex’s name – you know, just
in case he has heard of him. She assures the critic he hasn’t – he was a failed
composer after all, but tells him anyway. Shocked, the critic announces, that
yes, in fact he does know him. He once submitted his work to a panel the critic
was on – and the critic ripped it to shreds. It was laughably horrible. Then,
gradually, the other passengers on the plane overhear the conversation, and
realize that they too know the man they are talking about, and they tell their
story about him. It is a virtual tour of hilarious misery, as no one has much
nice to say about the man. And then, with dawning horror, the passengers figure
out why they are all one the plane together – but by then it’s too late.
This
opening sequence, which is the briefest of the 6 shorts that make up the movie,
sets the tone for the rest of the movie. The sequence is dark and disturbing,
but also hilarious, highly stylized and entertaining as hell. The film moves at
a brisk clip throughout, and never overstays its welcome in any one segment –
even when one threatens to, it’s because writer director Damian Szifron isn’t
quite done screwing with you yet.
The
first story is the most overtly comic (although given recent events with
airplanes, it takes on darker tone than was perhaps intended) – but all of them
have an element of comedy mixed in with the bloody drama. The story of a young
waitress whose only customer on a dark and stormy night is the man who
destroyed her father – and cook who says they should get revenge. Another about
an upper class guy in a luxury car, who flips off a “redneck” in a pickup on a
desolate stretch of highway – and then has to face him again when his car
breaks down. The longest is about a man (Argentinian star Ricardo Darin) who
gets a parking ticket, ruining his day, and eventually his life, as he tries to
fight the bureaucracy. The darkest is about a rich man trying to pay his
gardener to take the fall when the rich man’s son kills a pregnant woman in a
hit and run accident. The film ends with a delirious segment at a wedding where
the bride discovers her new husband is cheating on her. Most directors would end
this one with the wife getting revenge with a cook on a rooftop – but Szifron
is just getting started.
The
stories are not about good guys and bad guys – but about flawed people, who are
both good and bad, or perhaps neither. You may often find your loyalties
switching from one character to another during any one segment – and if I’m
being honest, most of them ended with me thinking that everyone involved are
horrible, spiteful people – who more often than not get what they deserve.
So, yes, the picture of humanity that Wild Tales
paints is dark and pessimistic. But the movie hardly is. Szifron is a natural
filmmaker, and his film is highly stylized, moves at lightning speed, and is
often hilarious in addition to disturbing. I’m not sure Wild Tales really adds
up to very much – I don’t think it has anything on its mind, rather to
entertain with its portrait of horrible people doing horrible things in the
most entertaining way imaginable. And in that, it succeeds brilliantly.
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