Los Brazos Rotos

English Title: Broken Embraces

Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 2009, imdb

Review: 3.5 Uchuvas
Comment: Since I heard the rumors that Almodovar was making a new film, I was dying to see it! Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed. I guessed the plot after the first 30 minutes of the film and that killed the rest for me. Without any doubt a good film but not a great film. As always in Almodovar's films, the cinematography is superb! Penelope is great as she normally is in spanish films. The rest of the actors.... really, really good!

Todo Sobre mi Madre

English Title: All About my Mother

Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 1999, imdb

Review: 3.5 Uchuvas
Comment: For now, this will be my last posting of the mini Almodovar's festival I did during the last month. 

I think the story is a bit too much! to top the terrible performance of Cecilia Roth playing the main character, kills the film for me. She is really terrible! she over acts so much!... really really bad! Trying to forget about her (although being the main character is impossible to) I have to say that the cinematography is soo nice... Almodovar is great on this... just G R E A T and that's basically why I gave more than 3 Uchuvas!  To finish this post I'll  quote one special shoot that I think is the most beautiful shoot in the whole film: when Manuela (Cecilia Roth) is waiting for his son in front of a huge poster of a "famous" actress... really nice!

La Mala Educacion

English Title: Bad Education

Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 2004, imdb

Review: 4.5 Uchuvas
Comment: So, I will keep going on with my Almodovar's mini private film festival. The story is just really weird, oh well as ALL Almodovar's films... Knowing his type of films, which has very complicated relationships, this story is not surprising, it's weird but totally expected from Almodovar... which is not bad in any sense... I've said before that Almodovar is a King in the film industry and this film is not the exception. I loved loved loved Gael Garcia Bernal acting as a transvestite specially when singing: "quizas, quizas, quizas..." just amazing!!!! He did a great performance here! Not only acting as a transvestite but with a Spanish accent!!.. yes, great job! When you talk about Almodovar's films you can't leave without mentioning something about the cinematography, so here I am talking about one specific shot: The football match when the priest jumped to block a goal... a masterpiece! a great freeze shot!

Habla con Ella

English Title: Talk to Her

Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 2002, imdb

Review: 5.0 Uchuvas
Comment: I've been re-watching a lot of Almodovar's movies recently; that guy is just amazing! He really is!!! I've been trying to recall a bad film of his and I only can remember one that I'll need to see again just to make sure that I didn't like it (Atame). Talk to her is one of my favorites Almodovar's movies!! The story is soo good! The main actor (Javier Camara) is really really good! As in ALL Almodovar's movies (well at least the ones I remember with detail) the cinematography is unbelievable!!! There are two scenes that I just think are so beautiful and perfect!!: the silent film, which is a high!!! only he can imagine a scene like this one!!!! and the dressing up of the bullfighter... that part is just soooo amazing!!!! the sound in that part of the film is so beautiful!!!! so much!! For me this film is one of the greatest he's done!

VOLVER

English Title: To Return

Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 2006, imdb

Review: 5.0 Uchuvas
Comment: I'm going to say goodbye to this year's comments with this film.  It wasn't a 5 Uchuvas film until before yesterday that I saw it for 3rd time. The story is very original. The acting is really good; I have to say that Penelope Cruz is great when acting in Spanish, she is great here and a "mamasita". I gave 5 Uchuvas for one particular reason: The song, Volver. The song is so beautiful!!!! so powerful!! the lyric is amazing!!! The song is from Carlos Gardel, I found the original video here   "...Vivir, con el alma aferrada a un dulce recuerdo que lloro otra vez" .... Love it!