Reviews

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  ★★★★★ review by Juan Bacaro on Letterboxd

  ¿Por qué Letterboxd, solo permite colocar 5 estrellas y no 10, ó 50?

  "Relatos Salvajes" es una mezcla de rock y ópera. Es dinamita. Es una puta obra maestra. Un fenómeno cultural.

  Macabra.
  
  Brillante.
  
  Apoteósica.
  
  Hilarante.
  
  Extraordinaria.
  
  Hecatómbica.
  
  Suprema.
  
  Despiadada.
  
  Minuciosa.
  
  Sensacional.
  
  Adrenalínica.
  
  Ingeniosa.
  
  Polémica.
  
  Peligrosa.
  
  Absolutamente genial.

  El mejor humor negro que haya podido ver en décadas en una película. Reivindica las ganas de hacer y ver cine, de analizar, de criticar, de divertirse, de asombrarse, de reflexionar.

  "Relatos Salvajes" no se queda solo con guiñarle el ojo pícaramente a las grandes masas, es que las desnuda y tiene sexo con ellas. Hasta cierto punto es muy demagógica y muy primitiva. Una exquisita venganza artística contra eso que llaman "el sistema".

  Para verla múltiples veces en pantalla grande.
  
  Para tenerla en la colección casera.

  Se hablará por años de estos 6 cortos en las escuelas de cine. Es una clase de entretenimiento cinematográfico.

  Es la mejor película de 2014.

  ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

  Filmame esto Néstor... vine.co/v/MLXwtPOeE2H

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  ★★★★ review by Esteban Gonzalez on Letterboxd

  “If poison reaches its expiration date, does that mean that it is more or less effective?”

  
  
  Wild Tales (Relatos Salvages), written and directed by Damian Szifron, is Argentina’s official submission in the category of best foreign language film for next year’s Academy Awards. I find it hard to review these anthology films at times considering some of the short stories work really well while others don’t. In Wild Tales, Szifron manages to structure the film beautifully into six stories with a great sense of pacing and storytelling. The two hours flew by and I never found any of the stories tedious or boring. When making an anthology it is important that you establish an important connection between each story, and Szifron manages to do just that. Each story focuses on characters who in some way seem to lose control and act out on impulse or revenge. It’s a film about our reactions and how we can behave as animals at times. Szifron manages to set a dark tone in each of his stories while keeping the audience in suspense during some scenes and exploding in laughter during others. It is a perfect example of a dark comedy that manages to maintain the thrills throughout the narrative. Szifron plays with the genre conventions and balances the different tones of the film very well. It’s hard to point out a weak link because each story brings something different to the film, but at the same time they all feel connected. Szifron cleverly satirizes different institutions in each of his six segments including marriage, justice, bureaucracy, and social classes. Wild Tales is a well executed and entertaining film, and one that might turn out to be a contender at next year’s Oscars.

  One major issue with anthology films is that since they are separate short stories we get little time to invest in each of the characters, but somehow Szifron manages to establish each character in each scenario so well that we end up caring for them. The performances are all solid. The only familiar face in the cast is Ricardo Darin who delivers his segment extremely well. He plays a disillusioned character who is tired of the bureaucracy in his country. It doesn’t take much to see him explode and we see how one small incident escalates into an overblown reaction. As much as I enjoyed that segment, it wasn’t the most memorable one. I was a huge fan of the road rage segment, which in my opinion was the highlight of this film. Leonardo Sbaraglia and Walter Donado give terrific performances as they are placed on an everyday scenario in the road which very quickly escalates into cartoonish violence. I could go on mentioning the rest of the segments, but they are all worthwhile. This was a perfectly executed black comedy and one worth checking out.

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  ★★★★ review by SilentDawn on Letterboxd

  79/100

  Wild Tales is like a breathlessly spinning car going further and further out of control all while the driver tries his/her best to sway the outcome. Hilarious, grim, and tragic in its dusty beauty and its gorgeous fatality; Damián Szifrón's film is a fantastic gem that never ceases to surprise, astonish, and confound.

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  ★★★★½ review by CinemaClown on Letterboxd

  Downright hilarious, incessantly fun & delightfully deranged, Wild Tales is one of the finest black comedies to surface on the silver screen in recent years and is a cleverly structured, ingeniously executed & expertly narrated anthology of six standalone shorts, each oozing with heavy dose of creativity, wickedness & macabre use of humour that, despite featuring different stories forms a consistently thrilling whole, and remains a highly enjoyable, wildly entertaining & thoroughly satisfying ride from the very beginning to the very end.

  Wild Tales (also known as Relatos Salvajes) is told in six segments. First follows a group of people on a plane who discover that they all have a common acquaintance. Second follows a waitress who recognises her client and the tragedy he caused in her life. Third concerns two drivers whose argument ends with tragic consequences. Fourth follows a demolition expert whose life is destroyed by a car towing incident. Fifth is about a wealthy family whose son has an overnight hit-n-run accident, and the sixth is centred around a wedding party in which the bride just finds out about her husband's infidelity.

  Written & directed by Damián Szifron, all the six stories within Wild Tales are connected by a common theme of violence & vengeance but the morbid wit of it makes sure that it never becomes too serious. All the tales are captivating & strong enough to stand on its own, all the characters are brilliantly penned down plus the actors do a terrific job in bringing them to life, Szifron's screenplay is as impressive as his quality direction, and each tale packs in highly believable scenarios, thus making it more effective. For me, every subsequent short was better than the one preceding it and the film as a whole never for once feels dull.

  The technical aspects make sure that all the stories exhibit the same feel & texture in order to maintain a consistent tone throughout its runtime. Cinematography binds it all the stories together with nearly similar camerawork & colour composition in all six stories, and all sets are brightly light. Its 122 minutes of runtime is steadily paced and every segment is tightly wrapped. A dark, sinister ambience encapsulates the whole film at all times and the tense vibe is effectively sustained. Music plays a vital role in balancing the whole act and Gustavo Santaolalla's exquisite score does exactly that, in addition to some cool selection of songs.

  Coming to the performances, every cast member does a fantastic job in their given roles & the sum of the parts here is greater than any individual contribution. The leading actors in each segment carry that story amazingly well and even the ones chipping in with supporting work are no slouch. The acting ranges from thoroughly restrained to totally maniacal but all of their inputs are in tune with the narrative these characters are confined to. Ricardo Darín is one of the best highlights but the film saves its best for the last, where the duo playing a newly wed couple take the stage in a calm, fashioned manner but turn absolutely deranged to finish the film on a memorable high.

  On an overall scale, Wild Tales is a pleasant surprise for I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it turned out to be. It's a wild, crazy & demented experience that delivers the thrills in the most unexpected ways and is finely balanced & accomplished in both storytelling as well as technical aspects. It's smart, it's creative & it offers plenty of laughs plus every tale has got something that makes them stand out in one way or another. It doesn't happen very often in cinema when every short in an anthology movie leaves a positive impression and while the quality differs from story to story here, each segment is well above the line of mediocrity. An instant classic, one of the best films of its year & definitely amongst the finest examples of its genre, this dark, uproarious & subversive satire from Argentina comes very highly recommended.

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  ★★★★★ review by Leticia Fernandes on Letterboxd

  No offense but that is literally my dream wedding

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