Wild Tales (Damian Szifron, 2014)

Wild tales was directed by Damien Szifron in 2014, and tells multiple unique stories of violence, love and revenge. The film holds an important place in the portmanteau/anthology genre because it is a relatively recent and low budget($3.3-4.5 million) film that made substantial success in the box office($30.6-44.1 million) and includes many differing and un-flinching stories that do not stray from the genre to make it more accessible to audiences.

The film switches at unexpected intervals to new stories that follow different characters in usually intense dilemmas that involve themes of morality and violence, revenge and conflict with other people or inner-conflict. The narrative is structured in a unique way, following an anthology of stories that are connected in no ways. The characters it follows have somewhat small amounts of time to play out their arch’s, but the film uses it as time effectively to create audience investment in the characters and their story plots, and also raise suspense and get across the themes and messages intended by each story.

The film is important as it is one of the most famous Argentinian films outside of the country, proving that the film is respected on a global scale, and also that the anthology genre can be executed in a successful way that can be entertaining and engaging for international audiences.

I personally loved Wild Tales! I felt that the method of storytelling was pulled of perfectly and the transitions were done seamlessly. The characters and plots were memorable and the film had some deeper meanings that were portrayed in otherwise entertaining and exiting sequences. I personally found the broken down car sequence the most exiting due to its unrelenting intensity and horror aspects, but the dynamite story was my favourite for its genius character development and fascinating portrayal of morality and revenge on society. My only critique is that the last two stories in the film were rather confusing and less entertains, also containing less meaningful and understandable themes, and uncomfortable scenes that made it hard to get invested in the plot or characters. Other than that, the film proves that a seemingly complicated genre/form of film can be made to work in a way that makes it more entertaining than many other films. I respect it for its success in gaining audience engagement in its short stories, and the memorable moments in the film.

I rate Wild Tales (Damian Szifron, 2014) ★★★★!