You Should Watch This: WILD TALES or RELATOS SALVAJES

Six tales of ordinary people in the grip of rage whose plans for revenge go wildly out of control or go as exactly as planned, depending on how you look at it. Shocking, hilarious, and audacious, this film is a rollercoaster of emotion and thrills that is based in the complex psychology of human beings who are really pissed off. This is so totally my kind of film. It has my highest recommendation. Don’t wait, watch it asap.

If you’ve ever had road rage after someone cut you off in traffic or met someone who did something singularly terrible to you much later on when you have the opportunity to hurt them or had a loved one betray you so completely that you are willing to humiliate yourself to get even with them, you can relate to these stories. Yes, it is a Spanish language film, but you won’t notice or care about having to read subtitles that after the first jaw dropping story. The story is one that has been used before, but the execution is pure perfection. Written and directed by Damián Szifron, who sadly hasn’t directed since then, it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award and won the equivalent prizes in Spain and the UK, the Goya and the BAFTA awards respectively, and from The National Board of Review. It is the most successful film in Argentinian history. While it was met with almost universal acclaim, it wasn’t the runaway hit that it should have been and if it were released later, I feel it could have been a zeitgeist. It was simply ahead of its time. Pedro Almodóvar knows great cinema.

Starring Ricardo Darín, Oscar Martínez, Leonardo Sbaraglia, and the indomitable Érica Rivas, you will laugh until you cry when you are able to stop your eyeballs from bugging out of your head from shock. You should know by now that I love films that pull the rug out from under the audience repeatedly. This film manages this feat with every story in its anthology by the virtue of the script and director’s bold and fearless story telling and the acting ensemble’s complete dedication to their roles. It shows that sometimes, and you never know when, your actions have consequences that you will not be prepared for.

The film is available on streaming as a rental on Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Redbox, AMC on Demand online and you can purchase it as a DVD, so I don’t think it’s out of print. But this is a film that is worthy a Blu Ray, 4K, or UHD deluxe package with extras. I know Arrow Player put the film up on their streaming site in the UK, so I have hopes that they may be planning a release. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE.