Tag: Spanish

SIRAT – Review

“Sirat” is an Arabic word meaning a bridge spanning the chasm between heaven and hell, one that is thin as a thread and sharp as a sword’s edge, as we are told at the start of the movie SIRAT, an Oscar-nominated Spanish drama about a man, with his young son in tow, who is searching for his lost 20-something daughter at a rave party in the south Moroccan desert. The word Sirat is Arabic and comes from Muslim belief, but there is little heavenly in SIRAT’s world. However, there is plenty of pulsing techno/electronic music, in this searing tale of a group of people on a dangerous journey crossing the north African desert, a journey that will challenge and maybe break them.

SIRAT, set in Morocco but mostly in Spanish and French, is nominated for both the Best International Feature and Best Sound at the upcoming Academy Awards. Director Oliver Laxe co-wrote the script with Santiage Fillol, and the tender and heartbreaking tale is driven by a tense, propulsive, pulsing techno/electronic score by Kangding Ray.

An ordinary-looking Spanish man, Luis (Sergi Lopez), enters a world of hundreds of mostly young, European revelers dancing trance-like in front of a wall of amps set up in the Moroccan desert, blasting electronic and techno music continuously, along with a laser light show at night. There is a sort of outsider vibe to this large collection of people who have come to the desert to dance away the conventional world. Luis is out of place but he and his son Esteban (Bruno Nunez Arjona) are there on a mission to find his daughter who disappeared at a rave five months earlier.

Esteban looks like he is about ten and has a little white dog with him, as he and his father wander among the dancers, day and night, showing everyone at the rave a photo of the missing grown daughter. The dancers are a ragtag crowd, seeming disconnected from the world, outsiders by choice or circumstance, but they politely look at the photo before shaking their heads, to say they have not seen her.

One group of five, Steff (Stefania Gadda), Josh (Joshua Liam Henderson), Tonin (Tonin Janvier), Jade (Jade Oukid), and Bigui (Richard “Bigui” Bellamy), tells Luis there is another rave after this one, which he might also check for his daughter.

On the second day of the rave party, a caravan of Moroccan army trucks shows up, and tell the crowd that “all EU citizens need to evacuate.” The military officers do not say why, but the event suggests an impending war or conflict. The military convoy is there to escort to Europeans in their trucks, vans and RVS out of the desert.

Luis and his son, in their van, line up with the rest of the vehicles leaving the location, but suddenly the two RVs in front of them, carrying the group of five who told Luis about the other rave party, suddenly bolt out of line and take off across the desert. At Esteban’s urging, Luis impulsively follows them, and they race ahead of military vehicles in pursuit.

That snap decision sends the father and son, with this ragtag collection of friends, on a strange, harrowing trek across very rugged, desolate terrain, to an uncertain fate.

Except for renown Spanish actor Sergi Lopez, the rest of the cast are all non-actors, mostly found by the director at raves he attended. That casting choice gives the film an authenticity in this world where it is set, but they are also compelling and charismatic characters on screen. The sweeping photography of the vast desert landscape combined with the driving electronic soundtrack creates a tense sense that anything may happen as well as an air of foreboding.

We are not told why those five, Steff, Josh, Tonin, Jade and Bigui, made that break, but there are hints that there may be reasons they do not want to return to Europe. We also do not know why the Moroccan army where herding the Europeans out of the country, but we hear snippets on the radio about war, before one of the ravers shuts it off, maybe preferring not to know, although one of them suggests it is WWIII.

Those unanswered questions give the film a party at the end of the world vibe but this is not a Mad Max knock off. The story is both tender and heartbreaking, with danger around every bend.

The ravers seem to know the back roads well, suggesting they may have been in northern Africa for some time, wandering from rave party to rave party. Although Luis is wary of these strangers at first, they extend kindness to him at unexpected moments and a bond forms. They are surprisingly resourceful and self-reliant but this is a harsh environment and circumstances where anything can happen, including death.

Director Oliver Laxe effectively builds tensions as these people wander in the desert hoping to avoid the world and its conflict by running ahead of it. Harrowing things happen, and there is a sense of doom and foreboding that is amped up by Kangding Ray’s techno score, which is a perfect fit. Heartbreak and horrendous things may lay down this rock-strewn road, and when tragedy does strike, things start to spin off unanticipated directions, as this gripping drama wavers between human tenderness and terrifying chance beyond their control. Walking the thin line that that title suggests, SIRAT is unforgettable drama that is worth the heartbreak.

SIRAT, mostly in Spanish and French with English subtitles, opens in select theaters on Friday, Mar. 6, 2026.

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars

HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN – Review

Natalia Solian as Valeria, in HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN. Photo Credit: Nur Rubio. Courtesy of Shudder

HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN is a subtitled Mexican psychological thriller with dangling supernatural questions. It isn’t an easy film to watch but many will find the story and lead performance well worth the discomfort. Valeria (Natalia Solian) is a young wife eager to bear a child with her loving husband. She becomes pregnant early in the film, but nothing seems quite right about what should be making Valeria, her family and friends ecstatic.

Guilt over an unfortunate childhood left Valeria painfully insecure about her fitness for motherhood. That doubt is magnified by her mother and sister-in-law, who gleefully pound her with reminders of it at every opportunity. She starts having disturbing, surreal visions that could be signs of psychosis or something occult. Either way, her fears of maternal failure escalate greatly throughout the pregnancy. The only support and comfort she can find come from a kindly aunt with a circle (or perhaps coven) of mystical friends, and a former girlfriend, Octavia (Mayra Battala). Hubby is loving, patient and willing to be supportive but his effectiveness borders on the vestigial.

Most first-time parents experience at least some nagging concerns about whether they’ll be up to snuff. Valeria’s reaction to the pregnancy she craved ramps them up to panic levels. As we see what she sees, or at least thinks she sees, we wonder about her backstory, and from whence this terror comes. That includes learning whether an occult ritual (hence, the title) might provide a cure.

The tenor of the film, directed by Michelle Garza Cervera, is mostly that of looming menace from an unknown origin, real or imagined. The score consists of more unsettling sounds than music. Soft focus and dim lighting add to the eeriness of the presentation. We can’t be sure if we’re watching a ROSEMARY’S BABY, or a case study in schizophrenia. Or a combination of the two.

There are long stretches with little or no dialog, made compelling by one factor – Ms. Solian’s performance. Her expressive face carries most of the load, which is all the more impressive since it’s her first feature film, after only a handful of TV gigs.

I can’t mention more without spoilers but there will be plenty of fodder for discussion about a number of issues by the time the final credits roll. Patience is required, since it may seem longer than its 93 minutes but many will find the effort worthwhile, including what is likely an introduction to Ms. Solian and the bright future she should enjoy.

HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN, in Spanish with English subtitles, will be available Video On Demand starting Thursday, Feb. 16, from XYZ Films.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

OFFICIAL COMPETITION – Review

Antonio Banderas as “Félix Rivero” and Penelope Cruz as “Lola Cuevas” in Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat’s OFFICIAL COMPETITION. Courtesy of Manolo Pavon. An IFC Films release.

In the satiric comedy OFFICIAL COMPETITION, Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas star as an auteur director and international action star, both with egos the size of Montana, who are hired by an aging wealthy businessman intent on financing a big, award-winning hit movie as a vanity project. The humor is pointed and wits are sharp, as wealth, egos, art and particularly movie-making come under the comic guns of Argentinian co-directors Gaston Duprat and Mariano Cohen in this hilarious Spanish-language satire.

As he turns 80, millionaire businessman Humberto Suarez (Jose Luis Gomez) decides he needs a monumentally big project to leave a lasting legacy. But what should be choose? A bridge designed by a famous architect bearing his name? A charitable foundation? No, a movie is more a sure thing – but a big, prestigious, award-winning one, one that is both a work of art and an enduring icon of cinema, helmed by a famous director and starring a famous movie star. Oh, sure, no problem with that.

The millionaire hires renowned auteur director Lola Cuevas (Penelope Cruz) to lead the project, and she casts international action movie megastar Félix Rivero (Antonio Banderas) along with the theater’s most revered stage actor Ivan Torres (Oscar Martinez), to play warring brothers in an adaptation of a international bestseller. The actors have never worked together, and in fact come from different worlds in acting schools of thought. They both bring big egos and wildly different ideas about acting to the project. Add in Cruz’s manipulative director, who eggs-on each and foments tensions, all to get the performance she wants, and clashes and comedy are guaranteed.

Penelope Cruz sports an impressively wild mane of frizzy red hair, hair that wears her more than the reverse, and lives in an aggressively modern glass-and-concrete mansion at the end of a long and winding road, both signals of the kind of ego we are dealing with here. The wealthy businessman financing this project only cares that the film is both prestigious and famous, and when the director shows him the book she wants to use for the film for his approval, the businessman confesses to not being much of a reader. After her meeting with the money, and having established she has free rein and a blank check, the director invites the two actors to her sparely-furnished mansion, to meet, to do cold readings and rehearse. That’s where the fun really begins.

Hollywood may love movies about movie-making but the Spanish- language comedy OFFICIAL COMPETITION is more a skewering and roast of the industry than a toast. This smart comedy actually focuses mostly on the pre-shoot preparation, as the director and actors explore the characters and rehearse, a period rarely depicted but rich in possibilities for conflict and comedy – with hilarious results. While the clash of acting theories and actors themselves gets special treatment, no aspect of the film industry really escapes OFFICIAL COMPETITION’s sly wit, as the skewering extends to the excesses of wealth, art pretensions, and battling big egos all around.

Of course, a movie about how actors act had to be catnip to the cast, and Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martinez deliver terrific performances while seeming to having a great time. Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas especially seems to have great fun with the banquet of material in this twisty, smart comedy. The film is full of hilarious scenery-chewing, out-of-control one-up-manship, and ridiculous behavior as well as sharp observations and satire, as the two very different actors, one an internationally famous action movie star and the other a revered theater legend and professor, try to top each other, and the manipulative director stirs the pot.

The film delves into real acting techniques, and real disputes between schools of acting, which actually makes it all the funnier and sharper. The techniques of the director to get the performance she wants from her actors may seem extreme, even outlandish, but may not by as far out there as one might think, if some tales about film-making trickery might be believed.

We get scene after scene of craziness and humor that ranges from broad comedy to sly satire. No one and nothing escapes the knife-sharp swipes and biting humor of Argentine co-directors Gaston Duprat and Mariano Cohen. The directors, who previously co-directed “The Man Next Door,” “The Distinguished Citizen,” “My Masterpiece,” and “4×4,” thought there already were plenty of films about what can go awry while shooting a film but none on the absurdities that can happen as actors work through how they are going to play their part. And they do indeed find comic gold in that vein, although having this splendid cast is part of their lucky strike.

OFFICIAL COMPETITION is a lot of fun, but especially so if you appreciate the art of acting in the movies or theater. Each of the characters has his/her own agenda, including securing their legacy. The action star wants to prove he has serious acting chops, the theatrical star wants wider fame and to prove his ideas about acting are better, the director wants to win awards and prestige, and all are ready to do nearly anything to get what they want. While there is a kind of showdown between the two acting styles, the two actors never directly confront each other, instead each trying outdo the other, conspiring with the director against the other, or undermining what the other actor is doing. Meanwhile, Cruz’s director listens, but discretely pulls the strings.

If you like satire and behind the scenes of movie-making, the hard-hitting, hilarious OFFICIAL COMPETITION is a winner.

OFFICIAL COMPETITION, in Spanish with English subtitles, opens in theaters on Friday, July 1.

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars

LA SOGA: SALVATION – Review

Hada Vanessa as assassin Dani in writer/director Manny Perez’ LA SOGA: SALVATION. Courtesy of Screen Media

For a definition of what people mean when they describe a crime drama as “gritty,” look no further than LA SOGA: SALVATION, a mostly-subtitled tale of a former Dominican hit man, Luisito (writer/director Manny Perez), struggling to leave that life after a personal tragedy. He’s moved many times to avoid the cartels and corrupt politicians he’d targeted. He was one of the “good” assassins, bumping off the worst of the bad guys ruining his country. Think of him as playing the vigilante role somewhere between a Zorro and a Dexter. We meet him in Rhode Island with a new love, Lia (Sarah Jorge Leon), while living small to stay under the radar of former associates and enemies. Of course, that doesn’t work, or we wouldn’t have much of a movie.

His past catches up in the form of some guys trying to kill him and others taking Lia as a hostage to force him to do one more hit, and recover a thumb drive with vital information. Complicating his ordeal is the presence of another skilled assassin, Dani (Hada Vanessa), whose reasons for entering this mare’s nest remain obscure for much of the film.

The low-budget look of the production works as an asset. Everything occurs in rundown urban settings, in gray, overcast weather. No sunshine on the set or in Perez’ character’s life, other than the slim hope for a peaceful new life with his new love. The cast of relatively unknown actors (at least to many U.S. audiences) adds to the suspense of how things will play out, since everyone seems more expendable than major stars tend to be. The most familiar face belongs to Juan Fernandez, whose name you may not know, but any fan of cartel, gangland and other crime flicks will instantly recognize from a zillion supporting roles. Actually, it’s only about 70, but his distinctive looks and bearing always enhance those productions. Even dropping in for a metaphoric cup of coffee here, his presence is a plus.

Many are tortured, maimed or killed – often in gruesome visual and auditory detail. This aspect of the film is not for the faint of heart. But the oft-used premise of a bad guy trying to be good despite pressures pulling him back to the dark side plays out efficiently, with a suitable balance of action and character development, satisfying the urge for visceral kicks, while developing empathy for the principals.

Perez turns in a solid performance as the stone-cold killer scrambling to do what’s needed to save the day and leave his past in the past for good. But the one who really makes this story compelling is Hada Vanessa, who sizzles as the type of sexy psycho killer one may associate with a Gina Gershon, or Sofia Boutella’s show-stopping turn as the spring-legged slasher in the first KINGSMAN movie. Or several of Juliette Lewis’ earlier roles.

As a whole, LA SOGA: SALVATION is nothing special. But among options in the genre, it’s well above average in delivering bang for your buck. As writer and director, Perez crafted a fine vehicle for the acting side of his career, while showing how much he could accomplish on an apparently minimal budget, increasing his potential for more work behind the camera as well.

LA SOGA: SALVATION, in English and Spanish with subtitles, opens Friday, Jan. 28, in selected theaters and on demand on Roku and Vudu.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

PARALLEL MOTHERS – Review

Penélope Cruz as Janis and Milena Smit as Ana in PARALLEL MOTHERS.
Photo Credit: El Deseo D.A. S.L.U., photo by Iglesias Mas. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Pedro Almodovar is famous for Oscar-winning dramas like TALK TO HER and ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER but the brilliant Spanish writer/director alternates those dramas with lighter fare, soapy melodramas, sometimes with a campy mystery/thriller side. In his latest, PARALLEL MOTHERS, Almodovar re-teams with favorite collaborator Penelope Cruz for a drama that combines these two film types running on parallel tracks, in which a drama about the devastating impact Spain’s political history on families serves as a kind of framing story for another one, a soapy mystery thriller about two mothers, although the two threads come together in the end.

It begins with two expectant mothers, one older and the other younger, sharing a room in a maternity hospital. Both are single and their pregnancies are accidental but while Janis (Penelope Cruz), a successful photographer approaching 40, is delighted by the prospect of motherhood, 17-year-old Ana (Milena Smit) is terrified. An unexpected bond forms between them, with the older one offering encouragement and support to the teen mother, who seems to get little of that from her narcissistic mother, Teresa (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon), an actress more focused on her career than her daughter. When the two new mothers part, each with a newborn daughter, they exchange phone numbers with promises to stay in touch.

Penelope Cruz gives one of her best performances as Janis, a photographer at a high-end women’s magazine run by her best friend Elena (frequent collaborator Rossy de Palma), played with de Palma’s usual bold flare. During a photo shoot, Janis meets a handsome forensic anthropologist and archaeologist, Arturo (Israel Elejalde). After the shoot, Janis asks him to exhume the mass grave where her great-grandfather, an early victim of Franco’s death squads, is buried, and he agrees to push for the project with the non-profit he works for, which is investigating the history of the mass killings under Francisco Franco’s fascist rule. The disappearance of her great-grandfather and others in the small village where she was raised by her grandmother has haunted both her and others in the village for decades and they want the right to recover and properly re-bury the bodies. Janis and Arturo also start an affair but when she becomes pregnant, she breaks it off, as he is married and his wife is battling cancer at the time.

The story about Janis’ missing great-grandfather and, more broadly, Spain’s legacy from Franco’s fascist regime, starts the film but then recedes as we focus on the story of the two mothers. That central story is both a soapy mystery/thriller and a drama exploring the challenges of motherhood, balancing work and family, and the connections between women. The more political framing story also explores family connections across generations, particularly between women, and the importance of history.

The soapy thriller starts after the two women leave the hospital. When Janis gets home, Arturo gets in touch with her, asking to see the new baby. She agrees but when he does see her, reacts to the baby’s swarthy appearance with questions. Although Janis quickly attributes the baby’s looks to the Venezuelan grandfather she never saw, and is offended by Arturo’s questioning, it still raises doubts in her mind, eventually leading to a shocking discovery.

Although Janis and Ana eventually lose touch, they reconnect when Janis spots Ana working at a nearby cafe. While Cruz is marvelous, young Milena Smit holds her own, with a finely crafted performance as Ana. One reason for the lack of connection between Smit’s Ana and her ambitious actress mother Teresa is that Ana has been living with her father, mother’s ex-husband, but he sent their daughter to her when she became pregnant. While Cruz’ character is emotional, confident and optimistic, Smit’s performance is more understated. Yet Smit masterfully takes the character from a frightened teen dependent on her emotionally-distant mother, to a more confident young woman, ready to face the world on her own.

While the central thriller story is soapy, it is never campy, handling the story’s twists and surprises as drama. Like all Almodovar films, strong color and design elements suffuse this film. Cruz often appears in red, signaling boldness, while quieter Ana is often in green or blue. The string-heavy music soundtrack, by composer Alberto Iglesias, frequently recalls Hitchcock films, particularly VERTIGO, as does the use of color in the central mystery story, The film also has one of the best uses of Janis Joplin’s “Summertime,” as Janis, who was named for the singer, describes her complicated family history, including the death of her hippy mother from an overdose at age 27, like Joplin.

While the mystery is not very hard to figure out, it does create a dilemma for Cruz’s Janis, a situation that is resolved in a pivotal scene in the second half of the film. However, that scene begins with Janis confronting Ana about Spain’s troubled history, after Ana, parroting her presumably-conservative father, says that the past does not matter, leading a fiery Janis to tell her to find out what her father did during that time. The scene is a crucial moment in the central story but also serves to tie the personal drama and the historical themes together by the film’s end.

Almodovar’s films are always about his unique, striking characters, which is true for this film as well. Almodovar’s ability to tell women’s stories is remarkable as always, and he puts that message right out there, on a tee-shirt Cruz wears in one scene, reading “we should all be feminists.” However, in PARALLEL MOTHERS, the director uncharacteristically dips a toe into the political, by focusing on the lingering pain of Francisco Franco’s fascist regime, during which 100,000 people went “missing,” a regime under which Almodovar grew up. But it is just a toe in the those troubled waters, raising the topic rather than exploring it deeply, and more focused on human rights than anything. Still, the film ends on a strong image of the opened mass grave, and a powerful quote on screen: “No history is mute. No matter how much they burn it, no matter how much they break it, no matter how much they lie about it, human history refuses to shut its mouth.”

This dual film, with serious and soapy sides, is usual for Almodovar but it is a strong, striking drama which might win the director both audience and award attention. In a funny way, it is DNA which ties both tracks of the film together, as a technology that makes discoveries like family connections possible and as the stuff of those family lines, as the past and the present come together in this fine drama.

PARALLEL MOTHERS, in Spanish with English subtitles, opens Friday, Jan. 28, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema and at other theaters nationally.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

LANGUAGE LESSONS – Review

Mark Duplass as Adam and Natalie Morales as Carino in LANGUAGE LESSONS. Photo credit: Jeremy Mackie. Courtesy of Shout! Studios

A surprise gift of Spanish lessons via Zoom launches the funny, charming, and touching LANGUAGE LESSONS, a comedy drama that soars on the magical performances of its two actors, Mark Duplass and Natalie Morales. Duplass and Morales co-wrote the script and Morales directed this surprising charmer where the characters only even interact on Zoom yet develop a strong bond of friendship. Duplass and Morales build such well-drawn, appealing characters, and the script is so steeped in humor and well written that, despite the Zoom call format and two languages, we can’t help but be drawn in, laugh delightedly, and then have our heartstrings tugged.

In this clever film, the two characters, who live in different countries, develop a friendship while only communicating via Zoom. LANGUAGE LESSONS begins with a surprise, when Spanish teacher Carino (Natalie Morales) contacts her newest student Adam (Mark Duplass) by Zoom to start his first lesson, only to find him barely awake, sipping his first cup of coffee and completely unaware that his husband Will (Desean Terry) has bought him Spanish lessons as birthday present. Two years of weekly lessons. Playful Will also failed to let the Spanish teacher, Carino, know it was a surprise, and he giggles joyously off screen at both the flustered student and teacher. Despite the rough start and Adam’s doubts about fitting weekly lessons into his rigidly-set morning routine, teacher and student agree to begin the next week.

Adam and Carino have very different lives – she’s a financial-struggling divorced woman in Costa Rica and he’s an affluent, married gay man in Oakland, California – yet they quickly hit it off. But when tragedy strikes, an unexpected bond is formed between them.

The pandemic created big challenges for filmmakers, and this is not the first pandemic-made film to incorporate Zoom. If you had too much Zoom already during the past year, your first impulse might be to run screaming from the room at such a prospect, but then you would miss out on a fast, smart, sparkling comedy, with two outstanding on-their-toes performers who generate a terrific chemistry on screen. This is the best use of Zoom in a film I’ve seen so far in a pandemic-made film. And the pandemic isn’t even part of the story, which takes place in some near contemporary but pre-pandemic time.

There is something refreshing about that too. You might think a movie where the characters only appear together with separate screens and speak a mix of Spanish and English would be challenging to watch. Far from it, LANGUAGE LESSONS is sparkling and smooth as glass, immediately launching into funny with rapid-fire dialog and Morales’ and Duplass’ mix of awkwardness and warmth.

LANGUAGE LESSONS isn’t a romantic comedy, as it is about a platonic friendship between a gay man and a straight woman, but it has many of the same beats as romantic comedy. Early on, tragedy strikes one of the pair, but as that character works through that experience, both the kindness of the other and their shared sense of the off-beat leads to both healing and humor.

The pair quickly discover that they share a playful sense of humor but have very different lives. He lives a comfortable affluent life of leisure in a gorgeous house with a large pool in Oakland, with his successful husband, who runs a dance troupe. She is far less affluent, struggling to make a living giving Spanish lessons on Zoom and teaching English at home in Costa Rica. He once spoke Spanish long ago, grew up poor, and traveled around before meeting his husband. She is divorced, also traveled, and once lived in the U.S. and is fully bilingual.

Morales proves to have the right touch as a director on this project. It feels like she and Duplass are having the best time, with the freedom and time to fully explore their characters and the growing friendship, and to play off each other, which is fun for the audience too.

Despite the restrictive format, the film never feels confined because there is so much going on with the actors. It is not visually static. as screens alternate between side by side and minimized, the characters move around their space in a natural way, and they take turns dominating the conversation. The lessons are practicing Spanish conversation, which also feels natural as they get to know each other, and the conversation is sprinkled with playful word gaffes, some slightly risque. He is the more talkative, outgoing character and she is more reserved, but her sharp mind and their shared sense of humor means they are evenly matched.

It feels a bit like listening in on two friends in a very lively, funny, interesting conversation. As story darkens and the relationship deepens between them, we are completely drawn in and our hearts can’t help but be touched by their experiences.

LANGUAGE LESSONS opens Friday, Sept. 10, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac and select theaters nationally.

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars

PAIN AND GLORY – Review

Center: Antonio Banderas as Salvador
© El Deseo. Photo by Manolo Pavón. Courtesy Sony Pictures Classics.

Making a film about a movie maker is a tricky thing but thankfully, Pedro Almodovar gets it right in the Spanish-language drama PAIN AND GLORY. Get it wrong and you have a self-absorbed mess right but get it right and you have something luminous like 8 1/2. In PAIN AND GLORY, an aging Spanish film director, with a long, storied career, reflects on his past life, particularly a childhood in poverty, as he copes with the pain and physical ailments that keep him from continuing to do what he loves – make movies.

The Oscar-winning Spanish director/writer/producer Pedro Almodovar has had his own storied career, with films ranging across genres with dramas like Oscar winner ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, thrillers like THE SKIN I LIVE IN, and comedies like his breakout WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. Many Almodovar films have an element of drawing on the director’s own life but it is much more pronounced in this film about a director, of course.

Almodovar has made a number of great films, and can add one more with PAIN AND GLORY. For any great director, some films turn out better than others but PAIN AND GLORY is one of Almodovar’s successes. Almodovar frequently casts the same actors in lead roles in his films, particularly so with Javier Bardem, Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz, and favorites Banderas and Cruz return in this one.

Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas) is a Spanish film director who has had a lot of cinema glory in his career but now he lives in a world of pain. Unable to continue making films due to a host of physical ailments coupled with depression, the aging director lives a nearly reclusive life, spending time remembering his past life, particularly his childhood and his beloved mother. Penelope Cruz plays his mother Jacinta, who takes her son from her their rural village to a small town hoping for a better life, a village where Salvador’s father has gone seeking work. Rather than wait for him to send for them, his wife and small son arrive unannounced, and she is dismayed to find the appalling conditions in which her husband as living. Undeterred, she struggles to make life better and give her bright son a future.

In the present, the director’s manager Mercedes (Nora Navas) tries to draw him out of his hermit-like life, and finally persuades him to appear at a retrospective featuring one his old films. A chance meeting with an actress he had not seen in years sparks him to reconnect with the star of that now-classic film. The director and actor had parted ways over the actor’s portrayal of the main character but the director has reconsidered his reaction to the film on re-watching it these many years later. Meanwhile, the actor, Alberto (Asier Etxeandia), has fallen on hard times, in part due to his heroin addiction, and the high-profile retrospective offers a chance to revive his sagging career.

Like all Almodovar films, there are a lot of complicated, often edgy things going on around this plot and with these equally complicated, flawed people. As in most Almodovar films, the strong characters, the ones with will and focus, are the women. In this case, it is both the director’s mother, in his memories of her from his childhood and in her later years (where she is played by Julieta Serrano ), and his manager Mercedes who help Salvador find his way.

The script is more introspective and universal than one might expect. Although this particular character is a film director, his experiences and situation could be any person of a certain age, remembering the childhood that shaped them, remembering first loves, first heartbreaks, and re-evaluating one’s work with the perspective of time, and contemplating the later part of life, as Salvador.

But this film is not all seriousness, by any means. There are elements of humor, particularly in the scenes with the actor Alberto, played winningly by Asier Etxeandia. When Salvador waffles about inviting Alberto to speak along at the film retrospective, Alberto tries to persuade him, as if he is auditioning, and Salvador unconsciously slips into directing, telling him not to cry at the event, and commenting the “actors always want to cry,” with exasperation. The film also has moments of romance, sweetness and poignancy, as well as struggle, indecision and bad decisions, making it a warm and emotionally engaging experience.

The acting is superb, as it always is in Almodovar’s films. Antonio Banderas turns in one of his best performances, as a man in emotional and physical pain, trying to find his way in late life and reconciling the past while contemplating the future. Penelope Cruz glows as young Salvador’s mother, displaying iron determination, showering him with love while working tirelessly to build his future. Other supporting actors strengthen and deepen the narrative too. Leonardo Sbaraglia is warm as Frederico, a long-lost lover who reconnects with Salvador, and César Vicente is touching as Eduardo, an artistically-talented and handsome young man, who sparks the early stirrings of sexual attraction in young Salvador (Asier Flores).

The film is visually vibrant, filled with bright colors, sunlight, and bold graphic shapes, giving the images on screen energy. The attention to the beautiful composition and color in nearly every scene gives the feeling of being inside a painting, and in fact, paintings and artists are a motif running throughout the film. But everything is masterfully integrated in this film, the story, the imagery and performances, so that it draws into its world fully and involves us deeply in Salvador’s dilemma grappling with the aches and regrets of late life but resolving them to find a path to keep living.

PAIN AND GLORY is a impressive but of cinema but it is, more importantly, a rich film experience for thoughtful audiences, both warm, bittersweet and satisfying.

PAIN AND GLORY, in Spanish with English subtitles, opens Friday, Oct. 25, at the Plaza Frontenac and Tivoli theaters.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

EVERYBODY KNOWS – Review

Penélope Cruz stars as Laura and Javier Bardem as Paco in Asghar Farhadi’s EVERYBODY KNOWS, a Focus Features release. Photo credit: Teresa Isasi/Focus Features

Penelope Cruz plays a Spanish-born woman who returns with her two children to the rural Spanish village where she grew up for her younger sister’s wedding. Among those who greet her are her childhood friend Paco (Javier Bardem), now the owner of a successful vineyard and winery. But this joyful family event is disrupted by a crime that brings to the surface long-simmering resentments and suspicions, ripping away the pleasant veneer of the modern world to reveal old class divides, in the gripping psychological thriller EVERYBODY KNOWS.

While the Spanish thriller/drama EVERYBODY KNOWS (Todos lo Saben) was not nominated for an Oscar, it did win the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year. The film seems deeply Spanish, and it features two of Spain’s biggest stars, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. However, it actually was written and directed by Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, whose past films include the Oscar-winning films A SEPARATION and THE SALESMAN. Like those dramas, a family crisis is used to reveal deeper divisions and issues within that society and provide social commentary, as the drama also explores complexities of human relationships.

Penelope Cruz plays Laura, the woman returning to her family’s little village for her sister Ana’s (Inma Cuesta) wedding. Laura’s businessman husband Alejando (Ricardo Darin) is a model of globalized affluence who has donated generously to the restoration of the village’s historic church but he has not come on this trip, with Laura saying he needed to remain in Buenos Aires due to business. As Laura and her children, teenage daughter Irene (Carla Campra) and young son Diego (Ivan Chavero), arrive at the small inn owned by her older sister Mariana (Elvira Minguez) and her husband Fernando, they are also greeted by her childhood friend and former love Paco (Javier Bardem), now one of the town’s most prosperous citizens along with his wife Bea (Barbara Lennie). As they all celebrate the wedding into the night, a tragic event strikes, sending the family into a morass of secrets, long-hidden resentments and accusations as they struggle to rescue one of their own.

The crime is the kidnapping of Irene, and the kidnapper leave threatening clippings about an earlier kidnapping that ended badly when the family broke the instructions not to contact police. The instructions means the family must try to figure out on their own how to get her back alive.

Secrets are exposed and the past comes back to haunt everyone in the crime/psychological thriller EVERYBODY KNOWS. It is a big cast, which provides plenty of room for intrigue. The title suggests gossip, and that does play a role, as the accusations fly. Red herrings abound, as do secrets and shifting suspicions. The film seems a pot boiler with a dash of soap opera, at least on the surface.

This complex film works on several levels. On the surface, it is a crime thriller, a mystery to be solved. At times the twisty plot verges on soap opera, as family secrets and long-buried resentments boil up. But beneath that the drama explores the impact of old class divides, the resentments and lingering attitudes of privilege even as fortunes are reversed. Past romantic history emerges as well as cracks in veneers of prosperity. “Everybody knows” becomes a reoccurring refrain, as assumptions that “everybody knows” are exploded or nearly forgotten events of the past come to light.

At first, everything looks the idealized picture of a modern globalized world. When Laura returns to her family’s ancient estate home for the wedding, she is the picture of affluence from abroad, the success story in her once wealthy family. Her older sister and her husband are just getting by running a little inn in the rural village but the wine-growing region which is bustling. Laura’s childhood friend and youthful love Paco was the son of the family servant, but now owns a prosperous winery. When impulsive teenage Irene takes off with a cute local boy on a motorcycle, her mother is not overly worried, as everyone knows everyone in the village. The whole town seems to turn out for the wedding and the wine-fueled, dance-filled celebration that follows. As the celebration goes on into the night, the festivities take a dark turn, when Irene goes missing.

Forbidden by the kidnappers to contact police, the family is forced to figure out what to do on their own. Fernando secretly contacts an old friend, a retired policeman (Jose Angel Egido), who offers some advice but also unleashes secrets and suspicions.

The events of the film rip away the thin layer of modern social equality to reveal deep class divisions rooted in ancient aristocracy. Laura’s aging father (Ramon Barea), once the local patrone and major landholder, drunkenly rails that everyone in the village, claiming they owe him and implying he was swindled out of the land, although everyone knows he lost it gambling it away. While the family treats Paco almost like a member, the old patriarch lashes out to remind everyone it was not always so. In the end, it seems like Paco who pays to biggest price.

The plot is full of twists and with so many characters and switch backs it is easy to lose track. The director uses a familiar formula of doling out information in pieces, building suspense and doubt.

With all its twists and subtext, EVERYBODY KNOWS reaches a satisfying but poignant conclusion. Not everybody will like this very twisty thriller but fans of complicated psychological thrillers will be onboard for this wild ride. EVERYBODY KNOWS, in Spanish with English subtitles,opens Friday, February 22, at the Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

ROMA – Review

Yalitza Aparicio as Cleo, Marco Graf as Pepe, Carlos Peralta Jacobson as Paco, and Daniela Demesa as Sofi in Roma, written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón.
Image by Alfonso Cuarón.

Oscar-winning writer/director Alfonso Cuaron (GRAVITY, CHILDREN OF MEN) crafts his most personal film, a realist drama set in 1970s Mexico against a backdrop of civil unrest about the struggles of a family and a beloved housekeeper named Cleo. The Mexican-born Cuaron both wrote and directed this touching drama, a kind of love letter to the women who raised him.

Shot in lush black-and-white, the focus at the center of this film is a young indigenous woman named Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) who works as a maid/nanny for an upper-middle-class family in Mexico City in the 1970s. Roma is the name of the neighborhood of gated homes where the family lives. Cleo works hard, does her household chores but her real value is in the love she gives the family’s children, who adore her. The household of servants, young children, their mother and a dog exist in a state of warmly-loving mild chaos. The life has its own rhythm and structure that suits the children particularly but it is too chaotic for the children’s father, doctor who travels frequently and returns home to more mess than he can tolerate. As things in the marriage grow tense, the young housekeeper faces her own personal crisis.

This is a beautiful, moving drama is a masterpiece in Spanish andCleo’s indigeous native tongue, shot in breath-taking black-and-white photography in a hyper-real style. Those artistic choices place ROMA more in the realm of art-house than the director’s more mainstream films like GRAVITY. While subtitles and black-and-white may discourage some, this excellent film rewards its audience well, intimately drawing them deep into the characters’ lives and time period, while also lending a sense of gravity and grandeur to moments from ordinary lives. That is not to say the events are ordinary – they aren’t. Wildfire, a city engulfed in riots, dangerous storm-driven surf are among the moments that confront the characters. Instead of the usual music score, the film’s soundtrack is filled with heightened ambient sounds and motivated music – that is, music from radios, passing street musicians, or a band at a party.

The acting is remarkable in this drama. Particularly effective is Yalitza Aparicio, the non-actor playing Cleo. Her still, sensitive face is the perfect canvas to reflect and balance both the sadness and joy she and the family experiences. It is a striking performance that is garnering talk of awards. Especially touching are Aparico’s scenes with the children, and her quiet dignity in accepting the difficulties she must face.

It is hard to do justice in words to the sense of majesty and significance Cuaron manages to create for these ordinary lives, yet the sense is there in the finely crafted images. The fact is, the film really just needs to be seen to fully appreciate Cuaron’s artistry in making the everyday seem profound.

ROMA opens Friday, December 14, at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

A FANTASTIC WOMAN – Review

Daniela Vega stars in A FANTASTIC WOMAN. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics © All rights reserved.

Chilean director Sebastian Lelio’s A FANTASTIC WOMAN is indeed a fantastic film, with a fantastic performance by its star Daniela Vega, who plays a fantastic woman of dignity and grit facing prejudice because she is transgender, as she copes with the loss of her older lover. A FANTASTIC WOMAN is one of the nominees for the Oscar in the Foreign Language category and the lead contender to win the award.

Marina (Daniela Vega) is a waitress and singer who has just moved in with her older lover Orlando (Francisco Reyes). Marina is graceful, elegant and golden-voiced, and at first she appears to be a pretty young woman like any other. But when Orlando suffers what turns out to be an aneurysm in the middle of the night, her gruff treatment at the hospital reveals that she is transgender. The doctors and medical staff ask pointed questions about her name, refer to her with a masculine pronoun and seem rudely curious about her anatomy. When Orlando’s family show up, they treat Marina like the unwelcome other woman, with a restrained disdain. Marina bears it all with a quiet dignity and poise. Part of the source of their disdain is the difference in ages between Marina and Orlando, part is a difference in social class between her modest background and his wealthy family, but another is the fact that Marina is transgender, and all that implies in Chile.

In his previous film GLORIA, director Sebastian Lelio dealt with the dismissive treatment of a middle-aged woman by paternalistic Chilean society. In this film, he looks at another person marginalized by that same social structure. Marina’s cool treatment by Orlando’s family is one thing, the kind of treatment his ex-wife and grown children might give to any younger lover, but with an extra level of unpleasantness and homophobia. But the intense interest by the police in Marina and her body has unsettling parallels to the Nazis.

The key to why this film works so brilliantly is its star Daniela Vega. Vega is a trans woman and singer who was initially hired by the director as a consultant but ultimately won the starring role. The casting could not be more perfect. Vega’s attractive, slightly androgynous figure and face are combined with a constantly graceful feminine poise and remarkable self-possession. Vega transmits to the camera a moving mix of sadness and quiet dignity as Marina has she faces her pain, dismissive treatment by Orlando’s family and invasive questioning by authorities. Marina is deferential and respectful towards Orlando’s family, but quietly insists on being treated with basic human respect. Vega embodies this restrained yet persistent inner strength, making Marina both a sympathetic figure and an admirable one.

A bonus of casting Vega are a few scenes in which Marina sings, with Vega’s beautiful voice conveying Marina’s inner soul while thrilling audiences with rich, lush tones.

As the story unfolds, both the family and authorities become nastier towards Marina yet she never backs down. In fact, pushes back all the harder in insisting on decent treatment. Lelio mixes the real and the surreal in this film, sometimes presenting Marina’s inner turmoil and her struggle to keep her footing in dream-like sequences. There is one particularly striking scene, where Marina is walking up an ordinary well-kept street lined with attractive shops. As she walks, the street becomes increasingly seedy and the gentle breeze she is walking into becomes a gale, as she struggles to keep her feet.

A FANTASTIC WOMAN is a film well worth the time seek out and watch, for its wonderful lead performance and its portrayal of quiet human dignity and persistence in the face of prejudice. A FANTASTIC WOMAN, in Spanish with English subtitles, opens in St. Louis on Friday, February 23, at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars