Wild Tales is not a film about calm resolution. It is a film about the moment before calm breaks. Six short stories, each a small explosion of rage, humiliation, and vengeance, strung together into a single anthology that captures the instant a person snaps. The film, directed and written by Argentine filmmaker Damián Szifron, runs 122 minutes and moves through six standalone shorts with a common thread: people who snap. The tagline sums it up: “We can all lose control.” That loss of control is the engine of every story in Wild Tales, and the film runs on it without ever losing its grip.
Trailer, via Rotten Tomatoes Indie.
The Ensemble
The ensemble cast is the heart of the film. Ricardo Darín appears in the segment “Bombita,” playing Simón Fisher. Leonardo Sbaraglia plays Diego in “El más fuerte.” Érica Rivas plays Romina in “Hasta que la muerte nos separe.” Oscar Martínez plays Mauricio in “La propuesta.” Rita Cortese plays Cook in “Las ratas,” while Julieta Zylberberg plays the waitress in the same segment. Darío Grandinetti plays Salgado in “Pasternak,” with María Marull as Isabel and Mónica Villa as Professor Leguizamón in that segment. César Bordón plays Cuenca in “Las ratas,” and Walter Donado plays Mario in “El más fuerte.” Nancy Dupláa plays Victoria in “Bombita.”
Szifron wanted to work with Darín and Martínez specifically, and he gave those actors the freedom to choose their roles. That choice shows in the performances. These are actors who know how to play the edge of a scene, and the film gives them room to push past it.
The Segments
The six stories are titled “Pasternak,” “Las ratas” (“The Rats”), “El más fuerte” (“Road to Hell,” lit. ‘The Strongest’), “Bombita” (lit. ‘Little Bomb’), “La propuesta” (“The Bill,” lit. ‘The Offer’), and “Hasta que la muerte nos separe” (“Till Death Do Us Part”). Four of these stories were partly based on Szifron’s real-life experiences, and all four were originally planned as thrillers or dramas before taking their final shape.
Each segment stands alone, but the film connects them with a common thread of catharsis, violence, and vengeance. The stories are not gentle, but they are precise. They land their points without waste.
- “Pasternak” is one of the film’s stories, featuring Darío Grandinetti as Salgado.
- “Las ratas” follows a waitress serving a grouchy loan shark. Julieta Zylberberg plays the waitress, and Rita Cortese plays Cook.
- “El más fuerte” tells the story of an altercation between two motorists. Leonardo Sbaraglia plays Diego, and Walter Donado plays Mario.
- “Bombita” features Ricardo Darín as Simón Fisher, a man whose wife cheats on him. Nancy Dupláa plays Victoria. The segment is described in the source only as a separate story in the anthology.
- “La propuesta” centers on Oscar Martínez as Mauricio, a man who makes a terrible offer to settle a debt. The segment is a slow burn, and the payoff is sharp.
- “Hasta que la muerte nos separe” closes the film with a wedding reception that falls apart. Érica Rivas plays Romina. The segment is described in the source only as a separate story in the anthology.
Production Details
Wild Tales is an Argentine-Spanish co-production. Three Argentine studios joined forces with Pedro Almodóvar’s Spanish company El Deseo, and the brothers joined Kramer & Sigman Films, Telefe Productions, and Corner Contenidos after seeing Szifron’s previous film On Probation (2005). The film was shot in Argentina between April and May 2013, and it cost US$3.3–4.5 million—70% of which came from Argentina and 30% from Spain.
The production is modest by Hollywood standards, but the film does not feel modest. It feels exact. The cinematography is sharp, the music matches the tone, and the humor lands because it is delivered by actors who understand the stakes.
The Critical Response
The film received widespread critical acclaim. It was praised as a good example of an engaging anthology film, for its cast, mainly Érica Rivas, for its humor, for its cinematography, and for its music. The accolades piled up quickly:
- Eight of ten Platino Awards
- The BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language
- The Goya Award for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film
The film was also noted for its handling of catharsis, violence, and vengeance. Those themes are not abstract in Wild Tales—they are lived out on screen, one explosion at a time.
What Makes It Work
The six segments work as a whole because they share a common language of frustration and release. Each story is a small tragedy, and the anthology form allows the film to pile one tragedy on top of another without losing momentum. The result is a movie that feels larger than its parts.
The humor in Wild Tales is dark, but it is never cheap. The film understands that the line between comedy and horror is thin, and it walks that line with confidence. The stories are not pleasant, but they are consistently engaging. The audience is kept off balance, and the film earns that discomfort.
Final Word
Wild Tales is a tight, precise, and often very funny film about people who cannot hold it together. It is not a film about redemption. It is a film about the moment before things fall apart, and it does not flinch from showing the mess.
The film is a reminder that catharsis is not always pretty. It is a reminder that vengeance can be satisfying, but it comes at a cost. And it is a reminder that sometimes, the best response to injustice is not forgiveness—it is chaos.
“We can all lose control.”
That is the film’s message, and it is delivered with wit and precision. The cast is excellent across the board, the pacing is fast, and the humor cuts deep. This is a film that knows exactly what it is doing, and it does it well.
Wild Tales earns a strong score.
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