Wild Tales is a collage of six short films, all different in circumstance and characters. Yet they all deal with the same thing. What would it look like if someone reached their utter breaking point, was taken over the line of what is bearable, and just... snapped.It can sound a bit over the top, and the film is labeled comedy for a reason, but at the same time director Damián Szifron gives it a dark undertone. Many of the stories are more than critical towards Argentinian government and public offices, and lets face it, people rarely snap in a graceful manner. Still the balance is always there. It is ugly, jarring and sometimes even a bit unpleasant, but you can always find the humour in the situation.I'd even argue that it isn't played enough for laughs. The first story, taking place on an airplane, is easily the most outlandish of the six. A truly bizarre scene that ends just about perfectly. It raises the bar quite high and none of the stories that follow can match it. To be fair, they're not even trying to, being more realistic in scope and circumstance, but it's still somewhat a shame.My second favourite is actually the second most outlandish one. A man has his car towed on the day of his daughter's birthday, and being a demolition engineer, he figures it's a high time to do something about this veritable highway robbery that masquerades as a towing office.My least favourite would probably be the last one, taking place at a wedding. It's a bit on the long side and the humour just isn't there. It has some good moments in it, but overall it left me feeling quite ambivalent.Still, none of the stories were bad by any means. Definitely worth a watch for all fans of dark humour and for those wanting to check out what South American film industry looks like.

Within the first minute, I thought the Cinematographer, Javier Julia, is a master jeweler in the use of light. Every aspect of the production would fit that category. It was as the third story started that I realized I had seen this before, a couple of years ago. No matter. It deserves mention again, with enthusiasm. The writing in these stories reminds me of the slightly twisted black comedy mystery stories told on the old "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" a few decades ago. Only here there's no 'slightly'.

If you consider the word 'salvajes' in the Spanish language version of this title, "Relatos Salvajes", it closely resembles the word 'savage' in English, doesn't it? That's what came to my mind, as the six unconnected stories in this movie could just as well have been titled "Savage Tales". They are all positioned at some level for a savage outcome, and some of them are ironically hilarious in the execution, especially the wedding story between Romina and Ariel that closes things out.Another common element to be found in the offing is that familiar bugaboo about unintended consequences. The two tales of catastrophic road rage bear that theme out in cataclysmic fashion. The third story about the two drivers escalating into a violent confrontation ending in a fiery finale is so over the top that you wouldn't even consider the investigating sheriff's comment about a crime of passion. But it's there and lends a twisted component to the gruesome tale, one that will double you over with it's demented logic.The hit and run segment was another one of those unintended consequence stories that was visited in the end upon the hapless gardener who thought he was going to come out of it set for life. It's interesting to consider what might have happened to all the other parties involved after this story went black. All those scheming money grubbers were going to wind up with nothing in my interpretation, with their golden goose cooked. But I'm sure they would still try to squeeze Mauricio with his fat bank account. The unbridled greed in the story is enough to make you wince.And what can you say about the wedding story? The way it played out and the way it ended were so diametrically opposed to each other that you can only wind up shaking your head. But I guess that's what made it so viscerally entertaining. My summary quote is a line from the song that played out over the closing of that story, another fitting but ironic tribute to a masterful tale of love gone wrong and traveling full circle.This is the only film I've ever seen from the young Argentinian director Damian Szifron, but if his other output is even half as creative, he's got a huge future ahead. His credits page on IMDb points to primarily TV work, but if "Wild Tales" is any indication, we'll be seeing and hearing a lot more about him in the years to come.

I found this movie coincidentally. 6 stories, one by one, I see humour that doesn't make me laugh, but merely put me in situation of how the jokes are happening for real. Jokes which slapping my face more than entertaining. But it has power of making me curious like hell to next story, keep going and going. Thank God, it is only 6 stories for the director to nail it, to play with me psychologically. Thumbs up as I recommend it to every one.