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'Wild Tales' Lives Up To Its Name

Wild Tales is two things that are rare on the big screen, at least in Wichita: a feature made up of short stories and a subtitled movie, in Spanish from Argentina. But it leaves today, which is too bad, because it's really interesting, although not notably exciting, because the short-story format doesn't allow for much emotional buildup.

The first of its six wild tales suggests something like the Twilight Zone, but is the only one that suggests something supernatural and is unusually lacking in humor. The following four tend to start out with what promises comedy, but turn pretty serious, even a little grim, as they show quite ordinary people overreacting to fairly common situations. The third tale, for instance, develops a pretty ordinary case of road rage into something closely resembling a classic Laurel and Hardy comedy of increasing destruction.

But the vignette in Wild Tales goes beyond even black comedy into real death and destruction, and the closing one starts like a screwball comedy of love and class differences and turns into-- I hesitate to say what, call it comedy if you want to.

All the episodes are well done within the natural limits of the short-story movie, thin on thought content by consistently entertaining in the old-time sense of keeping you wondering what can possibly come up next.

This sort of thing really belongs on television, but hardly fits the sitcom convention, and as far as I know hasn't been on the small screen for many years. I wish I could hope Wild Tales would help bring it back.