Biutiful

English Title: Beautiful

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Mexico+Spain, 2010, imdb

Review: 4.5 Uchuvas

Comment:

Im starting this year with the expected Biutiful! (title my sister, I'll guess, is hating for the lack of orthography). Without any doubt Bardem is just made for Inarritu's film! Some how I felt that all the sadness, stress and difficult times that most of Inarritu's films has shown, are all compressed in this film and who better to performance such a sad feelings that Bardem him self (especially after showing what he did in Old Country for Old Men). Im only giving 4.5 Uchuvas as the film didn't reach me as much as expected. It's well worth watching it though... do not miss it!

Inconscientes

English Title: Unconscious

Joaquin Oristrell, Spain, 2004, imdb

Review: 2.5 Uchuvas

Comment: How boring!!!!! the only thing really worth it from this film it's the Costume Design... beautiful!! However, if you want to have a go... do it! as it has won lots of awards.

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!

La vida secreta de las palabras

English Title: The Secret Life of Words

Isabel Coixet, Spain, 2005, imdb

Review: 2.5 Uchuvas
Comment: This film has lots of awards. You have a go and judge your self. I thought it was boring. The story started interesting but turns out to be a boring film (to me). I think that the last 15 minutes were very poor.... very!

Abre los ojos

English Title: Open your Eyes

Alejandro Amenabar, Spain, 1997, imdb

Review: 4.0 Uchuvas
Comment: I saw this film long long long ago and I liked it a lot. I recently saw it again and still liked it a lot especially after watching the horrible American version... which made me think, why! why they have to re-made films!! WHY!! especially WHY if the first one was soo good!... W H Y ! ! ? But anyway, this Amenabar film was superb, edition was super good, acting was good and the story kind of too crazy to be understood the first time (well, in my case!... although even the third time I saw it I thought: "what?!")

Los Amantes del Circulo Polar

English Title: The Lovers of the Arctic Pole

Julio Medem, Spain, 1996, imdb

Review: 4.5 Uchuvas
Comment: Great Film! Soft and Powerful but most important full of transparent and true love. Great acting, beautiful cinematography and super good edition.

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!

Azul Oscuro Casi Negro

English Title: Dark Blue Almost Black

Daniel Sanchez, Spain, 2006, imdb

Review: 4.0 Uchuvas
Comment: Director debutante!! super! Me gusto bastante esta pelicula. Me gusta muchisimo cuando una pelicula sabe combinar el drama con partes comicas. Me parecio muy buena la historia del amigo... Los actores fueron super! sobretodo "Jorge". La pelicula me puso a pensar en la mala suerte que implica no tener experiencia laboral... es como la historia de quien fue primero: el huevo o la gallina... si no te dan trabajo por falta de experiencia como diablos se hace para tener experiencia sin trabajar primero??!! Tambien me gusto mucho los primeros 5 minutos de la pelicula que dan el abrebocas para mostrar la inmensa frustacion de Jorge con todo el resto de acontecimientos a lo largo del film. 5 minutos que no pueden pasar al olvido. 

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!

Tesis

English Title: Tesis

Alejandro Amenabar, Spain, 1996, imdb

Review: 4.0 Uchuvas
Comment: Wow! 96??!! It's been 12 years since I saw this film! oh well... I really liked it. The story is really good and credible. Good suspense all the way.

Mar Adentro

English Title: The Sea Inside

Alejandro Amenabar, Spain, 2004, imdb

Review: 5.0 Uchuvas
Comment: The person who likes films and hasn't seen this one... well, what the hell are you waiting for?! This director is really really really really TOO good!! Just to mention some other of his movies: Tesis, Abre los ojos (but the original one!), The Others... well, you can't say which one is better!!! and he is sooo young! same age as me!... soooo young!

El Laberinto del Fauno

English Title: Pan's Labyrinth

Guillermo del Toro, Mexico-Spain, 2006, imdb

Review: 5.0 Uchuvas
Comment: Ok, I'm going to delete my previous comment on this film. "Someone" told me off as I was breaking my own golden rule: Make a comment without talking what's the film about. So I'm terribly sorry for the ones that read my previous comment (if anybody is reading them to start with!). So with this new comment I will only say that I don't give LaUchuva D'or to this film as I already have one film D'ore this year.

La Lengua de las Mariposas

English Title: Butterfly's Tongue

Jose Luis Cuerda, Spain, 1999, imdb

Review: 4.5 Uchuvas

Comment: It's a very tough movie, sweet but very tough. I like the way the movie turns, there is where all my Uchuvas go. The boy is great! I like the title a lot (not a very profound comment but...I like it)