Parallel Mothers (2021)

Direction: Pedro Almodóvar
Country: Spain 

Contents and style converge smoothly and seductively in Parallel Mothers, the most recent effort from Pedro Almodóvar. The acclaimed Spanish helmer mixes motherhood - a favorite topic - with Spanish politics and serves up a scintillating feminist melodrama anchored by outstanding performances from Penelope Cruz and Milena Smit. This is the seventh time that the former actress works under the guidance of Almodóvar. Smit, in turn, joins him for the very first time. 

A few unexpected twists spice the story of two unmarried women who deal with unplanned pregnancies in different ways. Janis (Cruz) is a confident middle-aged professional photographer who wants to unearth the sad past of her family lost to fascism. Ana (Smit) is a traumatized fragile teen who doesn't know what she wants. They meet in a room of a Madrid maternity hospital where each give birth to a daughter. Further incidents will bring them even closer.

The camera lens focuses on magnify the mothers, and this is also valid for Aitana Sanchez-Gijon who plays Ana's failing mother with personality. 

In spite of dealing with life and death in an adult way, the film is not an infallible achievement, but it also doesn’t hurt the solid filmography of Almodóvar. His early flamboyant ways took a pronounced decline with Talk to Her (2002), and Parallel Mothers continues the level of maturity found in Julieta (2016) and Pain and Glory (2019), even without reaching the thought-provoking abilities of the latter film.

Well patented here is his penchant for projecting women to the center of a story while directing them with real affection.

Pain and Glory (2019)

Direction: Pedro Almodovar
Country: Spain

Pain and Glory is a stunning, confessional statement by the fabulous Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar, who, at the age of 70, unveils his personal demons on the screen with respectable maturity. His story is strong, filled with weighty childhood memories, painful experiences, and unresolved relationships, all of them factors conducive to corporal pains, soul afflictions, and creative blockages.

Antonio Banderas is Salvador Mallo, a once successful filmmaker now confined to a life of reclusion in Madrid due to a restrictive aching spine, intrinsic asthma, panic and anxiety, and a multitude of other ailments, both physical and psychological. 

Emotionally insecure and under the effect of anxiolytics, Salvador often revives his childhood in his long naps, picturing episodes of the small village in Valencia where he lived in the 60’s. Most of those episodes involve his late mother, Jacinta (Penélope Cruz), and Eduardo (César Vicente), the first man he was attracted to at the age of nine. Curiously, some expressions of the young Salvador, performed by Asier Flores, reminded me of the protagonist of Cinema Paradiso, also called Salvatore. Evocation or coincidence?

At the same time that memories keep emerging from his subconscious, Salvador reconnects with the actor Alberto Crespo (Asier Etxeandia), with whom he fell out 32 years before. The latter had become as torpid as the director, and they both seal their fresh association with heroin. Addiction knocks on Salvador’s door, but an incidental visit from a former lover, Federico (Leonardo Sbaraglia), helps him put life in perspective.

We hadn’t seen an Almodovar so lucid and passionate for so long, in what is an earnest examination of himself. Pain and Glory is affectionately crafted with courage and intimacy, being nourished by Banderas’ focused performance in order to triumph. Emotionally, we feel we are stepping on familiar Almodovar ground, but there’s a new breeze in his storytelling and a functional plasticity in his filmmaking style that makes this film rising above any of his recent works. In the end, hope and confidence illuminate both Salvador and Almodovar, which is something to be delighted for. 

Julieta (2016)

Directed by Pedro Almodovar
Country: Spain

After watching the gloomy drama “Julieta”, we come to the conclusion that Pedro Almodovar, perhaps the most emblematic film director of the current Spain, continues very far from the artistry of his early works but fairly ahead of the ridiculousness of "I’m So Excited!", his previous film.

The 20th feature film of Almodovar’s directorial career was inspired by three short stories, “Chance”, “Soon” and “Silence”, by Alice Munro, a Canadian Nobel Prize winner.
Adopting the same strategy of the writer, Almodovar sets the story back and forth in time, relying on Alberto Iglesias’s dismal musical score and well-planned close-ups to extend its dramatic perimeter.

Julieta (Emma Suárez) has almost everything prepared to finally leave Madrid and move to Portugal with her boyfriend Lorenzo (Darío Grandinetti). However, she decides to cancel this longtime planned trip after bumping into Beatriz (Michelle Jenner), a childhood friend of her estranged daughter, Antia, who left home when she was 18 to a spiritual retreat and never came back or contacted her again. 
While vacationing in Lake Cuomo, Beatriz saw Antia with her three children and the latter’s reaction wasn’t the best.

Even without an address, Julieta, decides to write a final letter to Antia, where she unravels more about her daughter’s father, Xoan (Daniel Grao), a humble fisherman who had been unfaithful to her with Ava (Inma Cuesta), an artist friend from his hometown.
The story winds back to the moment when a young and bold Julieta (Adriana Ugarte), in her early twenties, meets Xoan on a train and makes love to him in one of the cars. Months later, after a successful first experience as a classic literature teacher, she abdicates from work in order to live near the sea with Xoan, whose wife had recently died. Already pregnant, she was welcomed by Marian (Rossy de Palma), a moody maid who tried to warn her about Xoan’s weaknesses.

Almodovar urges us to immerse ourselves into a complex emotional entanglement that only gave half of what was promised in a first instance. 
The tragedy, cooked with lugubrious tones, failed to reach the depth intended and leaves a bitter taste in the mouth after the credits roll. 

The dazzling cinematography by Jean-Claude Larrieu was the only outstanding feature since Almodovar lacked the ability to explore his own script in a way to escape the conventional. Even with some interesting moments, this is a modest pic from a talented director from whom we expect more and better.