{"id":2880,"date":"2016-02-05T18:42:22","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T23:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=2880"},"modified":"2025-06-15T13:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T17:00:14","slug":"wild-tales-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=2880","title":{"rendered":"Wild Tales-2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wild Tales-2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Damian Szifron<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Liliana Ackerman<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #374<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"80013561\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed February 5, 2016<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

What a crazy adventure!<\/p>\n

Receiving a well-deserved 2015 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nomination, Wild Tales is a Spanish film that weaves six unique vignettes together.<\/p>\n

Each tale involves conflict between characters and centers around the subject of revenge. Each reminds me of a foreign language version of a Twilight Zone episode, albeit much darker, mixed with a prevalent Quentin Tarantino influence.<\/p>\n

A psychopath arranges for all of his enemies to be on the same flight (“Pasternack”), a hit-and-run accident among a wealthy family turns murderous (“The Proposal”), a bomb expert turns his expertise onto a corrupt towing company (“Little Bomb”), a disturbed bride and groom bizarrely celebrate their wedding reception (“Until Death Do Us Part”), a revenge-driven waitress waits on her rival (“The Rats”) a brutal tale of road rage (“The Strongest”) are the stories told in this fantastic film.<\/p>\n

Wild Tales is an outrageous journey and as each chapter unfolds we are treated to the unexpected and each is cleverly written- bear in mind that they are independent\u00a0stories and have nothing to do with each other chronologically or otherwise.<\/p>\n

The vignettes also vary vastly. One as short as ten minutes and another hovering around the forty-minute mark.<\/p>\n

Some characters are sympathetic and hateful, which is interesting in itself. The diner in “The Rats” is despised and we wish for his demise.<\/p>\n

After “Little Bomb”, the protagonist (or antagonist depending on how you look at it) receives a hero’s welcome for standing up to corruption.<\/p>\n

In other stories, particularly in “The Strongest”, all the characters are unlikeable.<\/p>\n

Famed director Pedro Almodovar (The Skin I Live In, Volver) \u00a0does not direct Wild Tales but does produce the project and his imprint is all over it. Almodovar has a thing for the weird and, as in 2013’s I’m So Excited, a thing for passengers in peril inside airplanes.<\/p>\n

After “Pasternack”, the first installment, one will experience an “OMG!” moment, which wisely sets the tone for the entire movie.<\/p>\n

We wait and wonder what can happen next.<\/p>\n

My favorite tale is between “The Proposal” and “The Strongest”. I love the class distinction evident in the former as a wealthy father struggles to cover up his family’s dirty deeds initially at any cost necessary, but has he finally had enough?<\/p>\n

Will the wealthy once again victimize the poor?<\/p>\n

In the latter, class distinction is again explored, as a hotshot in a slick car angers a simple man in a battered car, only to regret his outburst of road rage.<\/p>\n

The story turns into a Lord of the Flies situation where it is “kill or be killed”. The clever ending for this one is fantastic as the officials completely misinterpret the events.<\/p>\n

The most bizarre tale is “Until Death Do Us Part”, which is also the finale.\u00a0 A glorious and festive Jewish wedding reception turns bitter and bloody as the bride’s jealousy is tested. But is the bride the unstable partner or is the groom? Or perhaps both?<\/p>\n

This chapter reminds me of a Quentin Tarantino film (must have been The Bloody Bride), as the tone and the texture are reminiscent of his films (and yes, the blood too!).<\/p>\n

Unusual, delightful, and sometimes even deranged, Wild Tales (2014) is a nice reminder that there are still creative and left-of-center projects being made in modern film that must be experienced and enjoyed.<\/p>\n

This is not an ordinary, predictable film making it quite a gem.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Foreign Language Film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wild Tales-2014 Director Damian Szifron Starring Liliana Ackerman Scott’s Review #374 Reviewed February 5, 2016 Grade: A What a crazy adventure! Receiving a well-deserved 2015 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nomination, Wild Tales is a Spanish film that weaves six unique vignettes together. Each tale involves conflict between characters and centers around the subject … Continue reading Wild Tales-2014<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4470,192,35,213,7038,4472,1502,4471,1503],"tags":[78,4473,193,67,214,7040,4475,1504,4474,1505],"class_list":["post-2880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-films","category-damian-szifron","category-dramas","category-foreignfilms","category-foreign-dramas","category-leonardo-sbaraglia","category-oscar-martinez","category-pedro-almodovar","category-ricardo-darin","category-spanish","tag-2014-movie-reviews","tag-damian-szifron","tag-dramas-2","tag-foreign-language-films","tag-foreign-dramas","tag-leonardo-sbaraglia","tag-oscar-martinez","tag-pedro-almodovar","tag-ricardo-darin","tag-spanish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2880"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20199,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions\/20199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}