I finally caught up with Argentina’s entry in last year’s Foreign Film Oscar race.  It’s a collection of six unlinked short films that mostly deal with revenge and fury, often in comedic terms.  It is, as its title suggests, a wild ride, although it becomes somewhat numbing after awhile.  Fans of Quentin Tarantino’s work will especially enjoy it.

# 1 – A plane full of people find themselves unexpectedly linked together.               # 2 – A waitress and cook at a diner prepare a special meal for an unwelcome guest. # 3 – Two drivers on a lonely road deliberately fuel each others’ road rage.             # 4 – An underserved parking ticket leads a man to completely change his life.         # 5 – A hit and run accident coverup proves destructive to a wealthy family.             # 6 – A wedding is turned inside out when the bride confronts the cheating groom.

Damián Szifrón’s film repeatedly depicts people being unnecessarily harsh (or often indifferent, which is nearly as bad) to each other, causing emotions to rise to the point of brutal violence (or, in the case of the wedding sequence, brutal passion). It’s all done in entertaining fashion, tinged with black humor and outrageous morality, showing by example that the world should really be a more loving place.  Other than the revenge motif there is no unifying link to these stories, and I think that is a mistake.  An almost hidden thread to uncover between them would have been nice.

Some stories are better than others.  The first has gained added somberness since the tragic end to the Germanwings flight in March.  The third was the most powerful for me, since I’ve yelled at bad drivers from time to time.  The fourth has the most irony.  The fifth is the longest, and dullest, story, and yet it ends all too abruptly. Perhaps the most frightening is the wedding sequence, because these two people are going to have to spend the rest of their lives together, and now they have seen each other’s personas stripped completely bare.

Wild Tales, which really ought to have been translated as Savage Tales, is powerful stuff.  I am astonished that it was nominated for an Oscar — it just doesn’t seem “classy” enough to be considered in that vein — but it is well worth seeing.  It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it is certainly dynamic filmmaking.  I find the first segment particularly haunting.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  12 May 2015.