WILD TALES
"Relatos salvajes"
(Argentina 2014)
Directed by Damián Szifrón
Now I get to the second worthy nominee for Best Foreign Film, Argentina's entry "Wild Tales," Second only the eventual winner (and my #3 movie of the year) "Ida" from Poland, and on-par with two films I saw earlier in the year (that were far superior to Mauritania's nominee "Timbuktu") -- namely, my #6 movie of the year, "Two Days, One Night" (Belgium) and my honorable mention "Force Majeure" from Sweden -- the entry from Argentina is a brilliant dark comedy directed with visual flair by veteran Damian Szifron. [I would say 'Tarantinonian,' but that is too much of a mouthful.]
Like the Swedish movie, "Wild Tales" turns an unblinking eye on one of man's less honorable traits: in "Force" is was Cowardice. Szifron uses six separate stories to explore a different one: Revenge (with a healthy dose of greed throw-into two of the episodes). Both film's explore these foibles with humor (we are all in the same boat, after all), which makes for a relatable, hilarious, yet often uncomfortable, two hours.
The visual comparison to the animal kingdom that accompanies the opening credits is sly -- for as much as we may tell ourselves these characters are behaving like animals, the behavior exhibited in each vignette is uniquely human. What is refreshing -- and rare -- in such an anthology, is that there no weak link to these short films. My two favorite episodes: one involves a case of extreme road rage, and the other features a Bride-zilla from Hell that ends the movie on an adrenaline high. The script, acting and pace are spot-on throughout.
I must warn you, however, that the vignette that opens this 2014 release, which takes place on an airliner in mid-flight, while certainly the equal of the other episodes in execution, is forever ruined for me since I saw the movie after the tragedy of the German Airwings flight crash in the Alps in 2015. No one could have predicted such a horrible event, naturally, but the timing of it with this movie's U.S. release is unfortunate.
