Review for Wild Tales

Although at first glance a running time of 140 minutes may seem a little long, ‘Wild Tales’ is anything but. Indeed, as the credits roll it will have you hankering for more. But I often find that to be the case with portmanteau films. This one comprises six tales, although the air time devoted to each wildly differs with the final segment, the ‘wedding’ one, being as long as any two or three of the others.

It’s an aptly named film. The tales are truly wild, each driven by a singular impulse – revenge. Whilst an incredibly dark film in places, it’s not without humour (particularly during the wedding episode). It’s certainly violent, frequently surreal but always intriguing. After all, you’re never quite sure how things will work out (generally not well for whoever is the subject of revenge).



In a grimly prophetic opening (at least one hope it was that and not darkly inspiring, but let’s not dwell on that), two passengers on plane strike up a conversation. One is theatre critic and another a model. They soon discover that they have a mutual acquaintance, a man named Gabriel Pasternak. The critic damned the young Pasternick’s career in a review and the model left him for a friend. By an even greater coincidence, overhearing the conversation a lady in the next aisle says that she was once his teacher. Before long all the passengers realise that they all knew Pasternick and each had been ‘invited’ on the flight through one ruse and another. It becomes apparent that the pilots door is locked and he’s going to fly the plane into the ground with everyone on board. (See what I mean about prophetic?).

After that very short opening tale, we move to another short. This time a man enters an empty diner and orders food. The waitress recognises him as a gangster who drove her own poor father to suicide. When she tells the cook, she is determined to kill him by adding rats poison to the food. But half-way through the meal his young son turns up and starts to share. What happens next is eye-poppingly violent and the whole scene seems to be over as fast as it began.

In the next short, a driver gets stuck behind a country hick in a beaten up truck who won’t let him pass. Eventually he manages to pass but not before winding his window down and telling the trucker what he thinks about him. He then speeds off only to get a puncture. Half-way through fixing it the other truck pulls into view and the driver is ready to finish off the fight.

The next episode is fuelled by frustration at being towed away whilst on an unmarked road – and then being made to pay to get his car back. Rather than simply pay up he decides to ask for an apology instead. Red tape and corruption get the better of him and it’s not long before events mean he loses his wife and family as well as his well paid job (as a construction engineer whose expertise is explosives). When his car gets towed again he’s left a little surprise on-board by way of revenge.


The penultimate episode sees the wealthy father of a spoiled rich kid trying to pass the blame on to his maintenance man with the help of a bent cop and a conniving lawyer. Realising his predicament, the lawyer and cops get greedy and demand more and more money. So much so that the man gives up and decides to throw them all to the wolves.

The final ‘act’, and bar far and away the longest and most convoluted, is the tale of a bride who, at the wedding, discovers her groom has been unfaithful and decides to wreak revenge. Boy – does she do that!

All the shorts are wildly entertaining and, stylistically, all appear very much as part of set. The film put me very much in mind of Jarmusch’s ‘A Night On Earth’ – another excellent portmanteau film.

The quality of the Blu-Ray is faultlessly superb – simply one of the best high definition transfers I’ve seen. It’s hard to tell if the film was shot on HD or 35mm but it has a heavily graded, stylised look throughout. It’s all beautifully shot and realised.



Audio quality is excellent too ( DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless) although is not in English. Subtitles are simple to follow and well-placed though.
‘Wild Tales’ comes with a modest selection of extras which include a 25 minute featurette: Wild Shooting: Creating the Film’. It comprises a series of interviews with cast and crew, most notably with director and writer Damián Szifrón, with cutaways from shooting. Audio is Spanish with optional English subtitles.

Also included is a 7 minute interview with Damián Szifrón filmed at the Toronto film festival immediately after the airing of the film. Diana Sanchez hosts . Audio is English although a translator steps in whenever Szifrón drops into native Spanish.

A trailer is also included.

‘Wild Tales’ is a highly recommended, fun movie which will almost certainly warrant several viewings. It may be a little uneven in its time sharing between the episodes with some feeling a bit short and the final piece possibly feeling a bit long but these are very minor gripes. The Blu-ray is image quality is among the best I’ve seen so would seem to be the edition to buy.