Mr. Movie review: ‘Wild Tales’ dark, twisted and tons of fun
Argentine writer/director Damian Szifron’s Wild Tales is one of my favorite movies from 2014. Szifron isn’t a household name here, but Wild Tales is the most successful film in the history of Argentina.
The film has six dark, twisted and often very funny stories. It opens with two people on a plane connected to a man who doesn’t like them. Another is a cook, a waitress and a bad guy colliding in a diner. A car is towed, then towed again and again. Anger and irony result. Another is a hit-and-run accident, where the guilty try to get an innocent to take the blame. Infidelity revealed at the altar causes improbable consequences in the film’s last short.
My favorite is road rage on a desert highway. It has twists and then more twists, and a side-splitting conclusion. All are very, very good, but this one is the film’s best.
Wild Tales is fun like the stories Alfred Hitchcock used to pack into those short-story anthology books that bore his name in the 1940s through the early 1960s. This one is a must-see.
All films are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays at Battelle Auditorium, 902 Battelle Blvd., Richland.
Tickets are $4 for adults and $2 for children. Series passes to all the films are $16.
For more information, go to tricityfilmclub.org.
▪ Rated R for mature themes and violence. It’s playing Friday, March 10 only at the Battelle Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.
▪ Rating: 5 out of 5
Let’s Go to the Movies class
Learn how to review movies at a Let’s Go to the Movies class with the Herald’s movie reviewer, Gary Wolcott.
You will start by watching the live-action Beauty and the Beast at noon March 18. Afterward, you will reconvene at the Kamiakin High School library, 600 N. Arthur St., Kennewick, where Mr. Movie will compare the live version to Diseny’s classic animation. Cost is $21.
For more information and to register, go to bit.ly/Mr_Movie_March18.
Wild Tales
Director: Damian Szifron
Stars: Darío Grandinetti, María Marull, Mónica Villa
Mr. Movie rating: 5 stars
Rated R for mature themes and violence. It’s playing at 7:30 p.m. March 10 only at the Battelle Auditorium.
5 stars to 4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen.
4 stars to 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it’s your type of movie.
3 stars to 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on DVD.
2 stars to 1 star: Don’t bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself.
This story was originally published March 9, 2017 at 2:18 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie review: ‘Wild Tales’ dark, twisted and tons of fun."