Revenge is a dish best served hot in Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes), writer/director Damián Szifrón’s (On Probation) anthology of vignettes about raging against personal slights and societal wrongs. The violent vengeance his characters wreak may not always be immediate, but comes from a place of primal anger, accompanied by burning needs to redress injustices committed. There’s nothing cold about the responses seen on screen to situations such as abuse of power, road rage, bureaucratic bungling, legal manoeuvring and infidelity, nor even warm; here, emotions are boiling over.
Szifrón starts his slick compilation of six stories, united only by the loose strand their shared anger offers, with the briefest and best of the bunch: seeming strangers and fellow aeroplane passengers chat casually mid-flight, soon discovering that commonality lurks within their midst. Accessible in its joking tone as well as short, sharp and to the point, it affords the film a strong opening, demonstrating the black comedy that will continue throughout the five unrelated episodes that follow. It also sets a high benchmark for the satire to come, one that not all of the twisted tales can necessarily meet.
Anthology films are often only as good as their individual components, which leaves Wild Tales as varied as its assemblage of narratives. The overarching theme shines through with delicious black humour, but the handling of the bloody details waver. Some segments, such as the tension-fuelled account of drivers getting the worst of each other, channels the thrills of car-based horror as well as the simplicity of everyday emotional responses. Others, including the retaliation nervously plotted by a diner waitress when the man who ruined her family becomes her latest, rudest customer, ooze atmosphere but lack anything more complicated than the obvious message.
Of course, such variance stems from Szifrón’s clear ambition, as well as his purposefully inclusive approach to his topics and targets. No one is spared his spray, even as many of the stories skewer class relations. Indeed, as well as the laughs constantly conjured by the filmmaker’s quick wit, and the fun the performers – Ricardo Darín (Violet) and Érica Rivas (Lock Charmer) chief among them – are visibly having with their dark turns, it is the feature’s embrace of our base urges to seek retribution at all levels that cuts the deepest. In the abridged allotments allocated to each wild tale, the pursuit of revenge is democratised.
What the feature may lack in rarely rising to the challenge of imparting more than sketches of storylines, as subversive as it aims to be, it certainly compensates for in its technique. Endeavouring to distinguish the look of each vignette, Szifrón and cinematographer Javier Julia (The Last Elvis) vary the angles and colouring of each for distinctive, inventive visuals. In fact, the versatility he demonstrates in what proves an aesthetically lush affair is the film’s other highlight, affording the filmmaker six great calling cards. They may prove uneven in content, but they’re unified in impact: blunt, brutal, acerbic and amusing.
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes)
Director: Damián Szifrón
Argentina/Spain, 2014, 122 mins
Release date: 21 May
Distributor: Sony
Rated: MA
Spanish Film Festival
www.spanishfilmfestival.com
Sydney: 21 April – 10 May
Melbourne: 22 April – 10 May
Canberra: 23 April – 6 May
Perth: 23 April – 6 May
Brisbane: 29 April – 13 May
Byron Bay: 30 April – 7 May
Adelaide: 6 – 20 May
Hobart: 7 – 13 May
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