Damián Szifron’s anthology of OTT tales of revenge (under the “Pedro Almodóvar presents” banner) is a splendidly anarchic portrait of a world on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Fired by “the undeniable pleasure of losing control”, Szifron’s scabrously satirical compendium owes as much to the American TV show Tales from the Crypt as to the scandalous European subversions of Luís Buñuel. From aeroplanes to cars, from cafes to sitting rooms, bourgeois repression is not so much dissected as gleefully detonated from within. Here are stories of lives destroyed by parking fines, of road-rage insults escalating into apocalyptic Duel-like confrontations, of white wedding parties descending into something more akin to the final scenes from Carrie – all defined by the sudden and violent breakdown of “polite” behaviour. The results are shocking and sharp as a knife, but be warned – the unfolding real-life tragedy in the Alps casts a grim unforeseen shadow over the opening segment.
