Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes) (2014)

Director: Damián Szifrón. Cast: Darío Grandinetti, María Marull, Mónica Villa, Ricardo Darín. 122 min. Rated R. Argentina/Spain. Comedy/Drama/Thriller.

Six 10-30 minute bizarre "tales" told in sequence, with the common notion of how fate ultimately catches up with you (and also, the strange presence of a fire extinguisher in most of them). Together with The Secret in Their Eyes and The Headless Woman, curious how Argentinian cinema is obsessed with the concept of fate - as though they're communally guilty of some dark deeds in their past. The first few tales are magnificently structured and engrossing, but the stories lose steam towards the end, with the last one (the wedding party), although satirical, completely out of touch with reality.

Mo says:

4 comments:

  1. Did you notice that tattoo on the DUI lad's forearm when he was crying in the garage? It was "سطل"! Was it incidental?

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    1. I don't remember that scene - but now that you mention: remember what was tattooed on the pimp's face in "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night"?

      ;-)

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  2. How can't I remember that!? It was tattooed like someone was doing calligraphy on a white board. Anyway, it was a Persian movie and he was a pimp, but this movie and that tattoo? Maybe, it's just incidental.
    Someone may say these are only stories and they don't happen in real life, but I say real life is more wilder. Doesn't the first story look like familiar to you? Remember the plane crash of German airlines in the Alps. A mentally ill patient takes the control of the plane and...

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    1. Actually, the first story and the road rage story were my favorites - the ones that will come back to me as soon as I hear this movie's name. Still, even though the possibility of one person being able to gather all his enemies into one plane is extremely low, the sequence was so magnificently done, I was willing to forgive the screenwriter.

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