Critics’ reviews

Wild Tales (2014)

25 reviews from 25 publications. Critics’ score 79: 14 positive, 0 mixed, 1 negative.

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79
Positive
14
Mixed
0
Negative
1

Most critics find Wild Tales a sharply entertaining black comedy anthology, with praise centred on the writing and the escalation of everyday grievances into outrageous revenge. The reviews repeatedly single out the opening aeroplane story and the road-rage episode for making violence both funny and unsettling, while the wedding story also attracts considerable enthusiasm. Strong performances, confident visual staging and a consistent dark humour help connect the six stories, and many critics find substance in their treatment of class, bureaucracy and social frustration.

The main reservation is unevenness: several reviews find individual episodes overextended or less effective, even when the collection remains enjoyable. The Wrap dissents from that qualification, finding no weak links, while The New Yorker takes a sharply opposing view, judging the plotting mechanical and the moralising simplistic. The consensus is firmly favourable, but the disagreement extends beyond which stories work to whether the social satire has much depth.

Empire
23 February 2015 · Damon Wise
85*

This Oscar-nominated feature is a blast of black comedy inspired by modern pressures and escalating human extremes. It singles out the uproarious opening plane segment and the anarchic wedding climax while noting some uneven middle stories.

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Slant Magazine
13 February 2015 · Chuck Bowen
85*

The energetic anthology excels at exposing dehumanization beneath social institutions through its vignettes, with exhilarating narrative invention and one visceral masterpiece segment on class frustrations.

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The Independent
26 March 2015 · Geoffrey Macnab
85*

The film is a raucously entertaining collection of six revenge stories that mixes cartoonish excess with relatable everyday frustrations. It singles out the liberating thrill of characters transgressing social norms through violence and chaos.

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Evening Standard
27 March 2015 · Demetrios Matheou
80*

Szifron has fashioned six payback stories with visual flair and a wicked sense of humour that tap into a universal desire for cathartic revenge. It singles out the escalating wedding finale and Ricardo Darín’s demolition-expert segment as highlights.

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Time Out
22 May 2014 · ★★★★ · Geoff Andrew
80

An engaging if uneven satire with universal black humour and a knack for outrageous excess grounded in perverse logic. The strongest episodes highlight road rage and political corruption with brilliant casting and wit.

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Vulture
20 February 2015
80*

The film delivers scarily entertaining revenge stories in six flavors that transform civilized people into destructive forces, with strong segments highlighting cathartic mayhem and social commentary.

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The AV Club
19 February 2015 · B · A.A. Dowd
77

The anthology is generally inconsistent with hits and misses among its revenge vignettes but maintains an even tone and social dimension rooted in class conflict and bureaucracy.

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The New Yorker
12 February 2015 · Richard Brody
40*

The six sketch-like variations on anger and revenge feature clever twists that are the point, but the moralizing is facile and the plotting mechanical. Szifron’s theatrics and simplistic attitudes seem borrowed from television commercials.

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Film Comment
1 January 2015 · Jonathan Romney

The critic praises the film's slick, entertaining vignettes of revenge and human savagery, highlighting the sharp airplane opening and noting its universal appeal despite some pacing issues in individual stories.

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IndieWire
16 May 2014 · festival review · Eric Kohn

The review calls the film a brilliant social satire with subversive energy drawn from its revenge-themed vignettes and Almodóvar connection.

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Los Angeles Times
30 October 2014 · festival review · Charles Solomon

The anthology is weighed down by clunky filmmaking and heavy-handed direction that fails to make the revenge vignettes compelling. Characters behave so rudely there is little reason to care what happens to them.

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Screen Daily
17 May 2014 · festival review

A brilliantly conceived and confidently delivered one-man portmanteau of innovative, scathing social comedy that is gleefully imaginative and very funny in parts, though some later segments struggle for air.

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Sight and Sound
27 March 2015 · Mar Diestro-Dópido

The film is a funny, dark, hugely enjoyable black comedy anthology where everyday frustrations escalate into absurd, violent consequences. It stands out for its pitch-black humour, razor-sharp irony and coherent exuberance as a whole.

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The Guardian
26 March 2015 · Peter Bradshaw

The critic hails the film as a lethally sharp, scabrous collection of revenge tales from Argentina that pulses with cynicism and ill-temper. He singles out the airplane story and the road-rage sequence for their funny-yet-scary execution and praises the overall high success rate of the portmanteau.

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The Hollywood Reporter
16 May 2014 · festival review · David Rooney

The critic finds the anthology a riotously funny and cathartic response to contemporary frustrations, with strong off-kilter humor, stylish visuals, and bold music in its best segments.

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The New York Times
19 February 2015 · Manohla Dargis

The critic finds the anthology high-spirited and often unsettlingly funny in its look at human behavior pushed to extremes. The best stories are executed with stripped-down narrative skill that makes moral hand-wringing seem beside the point.

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The Times
27 March 2015 · Wendy Ide

The review calls the Oscar-nominated Argentinian anthology riotously entertaining and exhilaratingly funny, a cathartic portrait of society with its veneer of civilisation peeled back to reveal impotent fury. It highlights the memorable wedding story and the explosive road-rage climax.

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Variety
17 May 2014 · festival review

The wickedly delightful compendium of six standalone shorts united by vengeance explodes in spectacular bursts after put-upon souls are screwed over too many times. While not all episodes are equally successful, overall enjoyment rarely flags.

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Eye for Film
3 October 2014 · ★★★★★ · Amber Wilkinson
100

Szifron's six darkly comic shorts deliver ferociously funny revenge stories with tight writing, memorable performances and inventive staging that keeps the energy high throughout. The director's Roald Dahl-like unpredictability and focus on humour over horror make it a standout.

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The Wrap
20 February 2015
90*

The critic praises the film as an exceptionally skillful anthology of dark, hilarious vignettes with no weak links. Szifrón is singled out for his sharp storytelling and pitch-black humor reminiscent of Almodóvar.

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HeyUGuys
19 October 2014 · festival review · Stefan Pape
80*

The anthology delivers consistent dark comedy through six tales of everyday frustrations boiling over into revenge and chaos. It stands out for its uniform tone, strong cast and hilariously relatable comeuppance themes.

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Paste
20 February 2015 · Tom Meek
80*

The critic finds the anthology delivers punch and panache through six disparate stories laced with biting social commentary on Argentine class and justice. The opening airplane vignette and road-rage segment stand out for their outrageous yet believable escalation.

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The Skinny
20 February 2015 · ★★★★ · David McGinty
80

The review calls the portmanteau of revenge tales hilarious, unnerving and horrifying, praising its wit, cruelty and storytelling as a feat of narrative cinema that resonates with universal frustrations.

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The Playlist
18 February 2015 · B · The Playlist Staff
77

The portmanteau of revenge-themed stories shows real talent and fresh energy but suffers from inconsistent quality and some segments that drag, preventing it from being fully cohesive. Strong performances and cinematic craft mark Szifron as a filmmaker to watch.

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Consequence
30 January 2015 · festival review · Justin Gerber
75*

Wild Tales is called the definition of a crowd-pleaser, breezy and surprising with strong humor, violence, and standout performances especially from Érica Rivas. It earns a place among strong Oscar nominees despite not every segment hitting equally hard.

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Ordered by the weight we give each publication, then by score. Scores are normalised to 100; * means inferred from an unrated review. Summaries are ours, not quotations; follow the links for the reviews themselves. How we rate