Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
Injustice and the demands of the world can cause stress for many people. Some of them, however, explode. This includes a waitress serving a grouchy loan shark, an altercation between two motorists, an ill-fated wedding reception, and a wealthy businessman who tries to buy his family out of trouble.
Wild Tales is a masterfully constructed anthology of six darkly comic revenge fables from Argentine director Damián Szifrón. Each segment escalates brilliantly from a plausible grievance into anarchic, cathartic extremity — the plotting is sharp, propulsive, and consistently surprising. The acting ensemble is exceptional throughout, particularly Ricardo Darín in the road-rage segment and Érica Rivas in the extraordinary wedding finale. Cinematography is competent and occasionally stylish but largely in service of the storytelling rather than a visual showcase in its own right. Novelty is high: while anthology films exist, this one has a singular voice — audacious, pitch-black, and distinctly Argentine in its social satire — making it genuinely one-of-a-kind. Endings vary by segment; the wedding sequence closes spectacularly but some earlier segments feel slightly abrupt, averaging out to a solid but not exceptional overall resolution score.