Sightlines · reception

How Wild Tales was received

2014 · Damián Szifron · Wild Tales on Sightlines

The arc

It exploded out of Cannes 2014 as the rare competition title that played like a crowd-pleaser, then became the biggest domestic box-office hit in Argentine history and an Oscar nominee. A decade on it hasn't cooled — it's the go-to answer to 'name an anthology film that actually works.'

What’s debated

The eternal fan debate is ranking the segments — everyone agrees the wedding is a showstopper, but the road-rage duel and 'Bombita' both have die-hard partisans, and whichever one you call weakest starts a fight.

Its footprint

The bride's meltdown at the wedding is a GIF and reaction-image staple, and 'Relatos Salvajes' became cultural shorthand in Latin America for everyday-rage-boiling-over stories. The cold open on the plane is one of the most retold 'I gasped in the theater' openings of the 2010s.

Where it stands

A certified Letterboxd favorite — among the site's best-loved films of the 2010s — and the standard gateway recommendation into contemporary Argentine cinema.

Did you know? It was produced by Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar's company El Deseo, and lost the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar to Ida — a result plenty of fans still grumble about.

A Deleuzian reading of Wild Tales →