Our guest blogger is hobbyist film and TV series reviewer and writer Harry Casey-Woodward. On th-ink.co.uk Harry will be writing a series of posts in which he will be sharing his opinions on things he has watched. Read his first and second review. In this post Harry will be reviewing Wild Tales…
Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes), 2014, cert 15, dir Damián Szifron, 4/5
A plane load of passengers realise they all have something in common. A waitress recognises a customer. Two drivers have a disagreement. A demolition expert is late for his daughter’s birthday. A teenage boy wakes his parents in the middle of the night. Newlyweds celebrate their special day.
So begin the six Wild Tales, a series of narratives in one film released in the UK this year and now on DVD. The tales are not related to each other. There are no random criss-crossing characters like in David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten novel, which makes connections between its stories for the sake of it. Wild Tales is more like watching an entire TV mini series similar to Inside Number 9, a British show that shares the film’s indulgence in wicked humour.
The only thing linking the tales is the theme of revenge, but they do not obsess over it in a Tarantino-esque, blood spattered manner. The director Damián Szifrón insists he did not have the linking theme in mind when he wrote the screenplay but that it materialised on completion. Thus the narratives feel very natural and there is no forced message. They are like little episodes, small windows into the characters’ lives (as short stories should be). So while we don’t get deep, complicated plots, we do get sharp, concentrated slices of action that somehow keep you gripped while covering a range of characters and issues.
This is not only the first film I’ve seen use this unique narrative structure, but the first Argentinean film I’ve ever seen. It’s produced by the legendary Spanish film maker Pedro Almodóvar and while Wild Tales does pay homage to Pedro’s style (stylish film work, passionate performances and a thick streak of black humour), it stands up on its own and is more concerned with plot and action rather than the emotional complexities of its character’s relationships, which Pedro is a master at.
Some of the stories manage emotional impact with hints of tragedy, while others are stark exercises in making us laugh then feeling guilty about it. The plane-based narrative at the beginning, for example, serves as a short but bold introduction that grabs your attention and ensnares it for the rest of the movie.
That’s not to say this film does away with emotions altogether. This is no cold expression of violence like a Haneke or Kubrickian film. Wild Tales is about real characters being thrust into extraordinary situations and their lives spiralling out of control. As Szifrón explains, each character find themselves losing their inhibitions and enacting primal fantasies that civilised society can only dream of.
All in all, this film is a sheer delight to watch. Everything about it works. Like the best films, it’s a spicy pot of humour, darkness and substance that’s carried along by outstanding performances and relies on smart filmmaking rather than dialogue to tell each remarkable story. Wild Tales has an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film this year and thoroughly deserves it.
What do you think? Do you agree with Harry?
Images from IMDB
Director paraphrased from behind the scenes documentary and interview on DVD