Wild Tales Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Wild Tales Blu-ray Movie Review

Worst (flight, customer, drive, tow, scheme, wedding) ever.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 6, 2015

There's a cosmic connection here.

"Wild?" That might be an understatement. Writer/Director Damián Szifrón's Wild Tales presents six engaging short stories of life gone wrong and the bloodlust and bloodletting that's a result in one unbelievably well made and engaging motion picture. The film plays off of base human emotions and explores the darker side thereof as wronged people exact revenge and, in doing so, only escalate already deteriorating situations and often find more negative than positive results in the aftermath of their actions, if they're even around to witness the final tally. The Osar-nomianted movie balances its dramatic darkness, emotionally unstable characters, and sometimes heavy violence with a subtle, but effective, underlying sense of humor in a "all that's left is laughter" sort of way as the movie plows through its uneasy tales that are confidently assembled, wonderfully performed, and endlessly engaging.

Well this is a wild coincidence...

In "Pasternak," a plane-full of people quickly realize that they all have a connection to a man named Gabriel Pasternak, and they've all in some way negatively influenced his direction in life. In the second short, "Las Ratas," a waitress recognizes a customer as a man who drove her father to suicide. She toys with the idea of murdering him by lacing his food with poison. A driver finds himself caught in a bloody feud following a case of road rage that gets out of control in "El Más Fuerte". The main character in "Bombita" finds himself fed up with a corrupt city service and plots revenge. A spoiled rich kid in "La Propuesta" is involved in a hit-and-run accident and leaves his father to clean it up. Lastly, "Hasta Que la Muerte Nos Separe" depicts a bride who discovers her groom hasn't been faithful and proceeds to wreck the wedding. These are the stories that define Wild Tales, gloriously left to their own devices and sharing only a common thread of human rage taken to the extreme, not awkward interconnectedness or forced character relationships one with another.

Wild Tales is a sly little thing, a superficially dark and disturbing collection of shorts that showcase man at his worst, presenting a number of stories in which people feel compelled, for whatever reason, to seek revenge, wrestle with justice, lose control, resort to extreme measures, fight uphill battles, work the system, and allow passion -- more than one kind of passion -- to overwhelm their sensibilities. There's at least a hint of most every one of these emotional outlets in each short, but only one of them is at the center of each, a center defined by a broader context that sees characters engaged in a total loss of self-control, in the case of the "Pasternak" short by way of an unseen character but in all of the others a person, or people, who dig themselves into a hole from which they cannot escape, leaving them with no choice but to furiously scratch and claw in an effort to avert disaster. Or they merely settle in and take whatever comes their way, digging further in the process and going along for the ride, consequences be damned. It's a fascinating look at man's base emotions, far removed from accepted societal norms and decorum and moving as far towards "fantasy" as possible while still remaining, ever so slightly, in the realm of possibility if the circumstances added up to a complete freak-out that momentarily erases any sense of self and the body is taken over by raw, uncontrollable rage. But underneath all the negativity is a darkly fun movie, one that so expertly toys with that boundary between "possible" and "wild fantasy" that one cannot help but to see the humor in it, to surrender to the absurd and enjoy the ride in a train wreck sort of way that's fascinatingly grisly but so over the top and peppered with so much avoidable chaos that the grotesque becomes a point of levity. It's brilliant storytelling and audience manipulation at every turn.

Many viewers will undoubtedly pick up on some similarities the shorts share with other properties. There's a certain Twilight Zone vibe to the entire thing, not because there's any kind of Sci-Fi connection but there is a Serling-esque surreal scope and flow to the shorts in how, as noted above, they feel so distant, almost fantastical, but still play out on some relatable level. In each one, crazy things happen to otherwise normal people who are suddenly thrust into an unbelievable situation as that classic "ripple effect" drags the characters into an abyss of inescapable despair and base, almost inhuman instinct takes control. There are also obvious similarities to other films with more focused single-event stories; "El Más Fuerte" reminds of Duel and "Bombita" is essentially a microcosm of Falling Down. But there's never any sense that these aren't creatively original even if their superficialities seem to share ideas with other properties. Their togetherness in the film, their tight focus, and their shared underlying structures and themes help build a broader narrative that will leave audiences in a state of emotional disarray as they process the darkness, the levity, and the social commentary that's all subtle but nonetheless exacting in every deliciously weird and captivating moment.

Wild Tales Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Wild Tales looks drop-dead gorgeous on Blu-ray. This is hands-down one of the nicest looking transfers on the market. Everything is in top condition; the picture yields amazingly intricate details, bold and natural colors, superb blacks, natural skin tones, and no extracurricular anomalies. It's clean and naturally sharp, producing the sort of tactile, effortless details reserved for the finest transfers. Intimate pores, stubble, and lines on faces; pinpoint clothing fabrics; terrain; even the faux leather seat covers on a plane or little odds and ends around a wedding reception or car pickup kiosk are so vivid and accurate that the audiences might believe they're looking through a clean window rather than at a television or projector screen. Colors are likewise amazingly intricate and on-the-nose accurate, whether the boldest primaries, most subtle secondary and tertiary shades, or earthy backdrops. Black levels are impressively deep and stable and flesh tones never betray what appears to be the actors' natural (or makeup supported, as the case may be) complexion. This is a true stunner from Sony and one of the rare transfers that manages to really impress this deep into Blu-ray's lifecycle.

Wild Tales Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Wild Tales' DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is every bit as impressive as its 1080p video counterpart. The track provides natural clarity and an effortless sense of immersion and natural sound placement, leaving nothing to the imagination but never once feeling over-engineered or in any way unnatural. The track plays with all sorts of ambient effects, including background airport din, a humming jet engine heard from inside the cabin, driving rain and rolling thunder, echoing desert atmospherics, wedding reception music and chatter, and other bits that easily place the listener in the midst of the film's various locations. Music is aggressive but never at the sacrifice of clarity, enjoying healthy surround support and wide front end spacing. An explosion at the 40:40 mark would be the envy of almost any Action movie soundtrack considering its hard-hitting bass but crisp definition beyond the low end power. Dialogue flows naturally from the center with healthy reverberation when the environment demands. Even in 2015 the track impresses and if nothing else audiophiles need to pick this disc up for reference and pure enjoyment purposes.

Wild Tales Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Wild Tales contains a featurette, a brief TIFF discussion, and a trailer.

• Wild Shooting: Creating the Film (1080p, 24:58): Damián Szifrón, cast, and crew discuss ideas behind the film; assembling the film; its structure including the plot, characters, and thematic details of each short; the film's style; and more. Interviews are intercut with behind-the-scenes footage. In Spanish with optional English subtitles.
• An Evening at the Toronto International Film Festival with Damián Szifrón (1080i, 6:46): Moderator Diana Sanchez hosts the director for a few questions after a screening. Only English is subtitled in English, but a translator helps out when Szifrón switches to Spanish.
• Wild Tales Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:11).
• Previews (1080p): Additional Sony titles.

Wild Tales Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Wild Tales shares six stories that range from humorous to uncomfortable, from weird to grotesque, all of them offering a fascinating look at the worst people have to offer, albeit stemming from happenings that aren't necessarily of their own making. The movie is filled with people making bad choices, people whose motivations range from innocuous to vengeful, from spiteful to hateful, all of them touching on some extreme of human nature that, even with polite society conditioning almost always otherwise taking precedence, still exists somewhere way back in the recess and is always ready to come out when the world pokes someone the wrong way. This is a brilliant film with some superficial similarities to others but plays as a uniquely unnerving collage of, well, wild tales that will leave audiences reflecting both on the insanely great quality of the entire filmmaking process -- the acting, sound engineering, precise direction, even the carefully considered content flow from one short to the next -- and the deeper, darker, and in some ways disturbingly humorous strings that connect them. Sony's Blu-ray release of Wild Tales is a technical gem, boasting perfect video and audio. It's a shame more supplements couldn't be included, but everything else about this package is stellar. Highly recommended.