Director: Damián Szifron
The title Wild Tales is perfectly appropriate for a film that is not only interested in storytelling but in mining the extremes of human madness. An anthology comprised of six stories that inevitably devolve into something violent or otherwise manic, the film begins each episode with a setup that is familiar to the viewer: an incident involving road rage; the madness caused by an unjust parking ticket; newlyweds on their wedding day. But director Damián Szifron exploits even the most banal situations by raising the stakes higher and higher, arriving at some sort of primal examination about how petty, proud, and vengeful even the best of us can be. The filmmaking is effective, with each story setting its own tone and working well as a short–the most memorable of which is “Road to Hell”, in which a road rage incident turns into a Roadrunner-like chase and finally homicidal. As a study of impulsive human behavior, it feels like it makes its point before the end credits (with each unexpected development becoming increasingly expected), but it’s nice to see a filmmaker play so joyfully with the art of storytelling.
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