"When poison expires, does it get more or less dangerous ?", muses a character in Wild Tales, Argentinian writer-director Damián Szifron's brilliant black comedy, co-produced by the great Almodovar. It is an anthology consisting of six individual pieces themed on rage and revenge. Anthologies, in general, are helmed by two or more directors who contribute individual pieces to the final movie and by this very structure, there is a loss of congruence among the individual pieces. However, Wild Tales, is a rare exception to the aforesaid pitfall as Damián Szifron, who has written and directed each of the six shorts, strikes a fine balance among them and has pruned off almost all flab from the proceedings which engross the viewer in their taut storylines.
The movie begins with Pasternak, where a model boards an air plane and finds, through a casual conversation with another passenger, that she shares a connection with all her co-passengers in the form of her ex-boyfriend, Gabriel Pasternak. This is the shortest piece among the ensemble and precedes the title credits and packs a wicked punch in its tail that would leave a lasting impact.
The Rats (Spanish - Las Ratas) is set in a rainy night on deserted diner, wherein the waitress finds that the lone grumpy customer stepping in is, in fact, the loan shark who had driven her father to suicide and ruined her family. While she is inclined to insult him verbally, she finds herself caught in a bind of a fledgling moral compass, when the cook - an ex-jailbird herself - suggests mixing rat poison in his food.
In The Strongest (Spanish - El más fuerte), a suave corporate honcho is driving in his swanky premium car through a remote highway when he encounters a driver in a shabby truck who frustrates him by blocking the path with his crawling pace. He verbally abuses the truck driver and shows him the finger when he ultimately manages to overtake the truck. However, things escalate into a catastrophic case of road rage - a la Spielberg's "Duel", albeit in an ultra-violent version - when the honcho's swanky car has a flat tire and finds that the truck driver is the first to arrive on the scene .
In "Little Bomb" (Spanish - Bombita), a demolitions expert (Ricardo Darin - "The Secret in their Eyes"), trying to reach home to be in time for his daughter's birthday party, stops to buy her a cake and finds that his car was towed away despite the absence of any markings on the parking space as tow-away zone. He is driven into a righteous rage and his quest to seek justice from the corrupt system pushes him into a downward spiral resulting in him losing his money, his job and even his fragile family. His response to this unfolding turmoil transforms him into an unlikely popular hero.
The Deal (Spanish - "La Propuesta") finds a rich manipulative businessman trying to salvage a situation when he finds that his son is involved in a hit and run accident which has resulted in the death of a pregnant woman. He contacts his lawyer, a long time associate and together they cook up a plan to convince the poor gardener to become the fall guy in lieu of a suitable compensation to his family. But, when the lawyer and the investigating cop start demanding their own pound of flesh for the cover-up, the rich man finds himself in familiar territory of being a hard nosed negotiator in a high stakes game.
The final piece, Until death do us part (Spanish - "Hasta que la muerte nos separe") takes place in a boisterous wedding reception which descends into an unbridled chaotic see-saw finale when the bride, Romina (an electric Erica Rivas) discovers that the groom was sleeping with one of the guests. Seen as a whole, while Bombita and La Propuesta might seem a few shades darker in comparison to the other four stories, they stand out for their gravitas and social commentary.
While at the apparent level there is no connection between the six stories, Szifron weaves them in the same thematic thread where he pushes his leads to their breaking point in a narrative that sparkles with fluency and visual flair. He also manages to transcend the vicious violence in these stories to present his views on the social decay that festers in the form of corruption, inequality and injustice that permeate Argentina at every level. Each of his stories is a resplendent exposition of Szifron's consummate skills as a writer-director, where his stories immersethe viewers in an intense roulette of role reversals, set to a lively pace, packed with oodles of wicked dark humour and horror in equal measures right till their twisted denouement.
Wild Tales was a final nominee for the award for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards where it lost to the Polish movie, Ida. It has also received wide critical as well as popular acclaim across several international film festivals where it was screened.
While at the apparent level there is no connection between the six stories, Szifron weaves them in the same thematic thread where he pushes his leads to their breaking point in a narrative that sparkles with fluency and visual flair. He also manages to transcend the vicious violence in these stories to present his views on the social decay that festers in the form of corruption, inequality and injustice that permeate Argentina at every level. Each of his stories is a resplendent exposition of Szifron's consummate skills as a writer-director, where his stories immerse the viewers in an intense roulette of role reversals, set to a lively pace, packed with oodles of wicked dark humour and horror in equal measures right till their twisted denouement. 
