Pain

While a tight race between two other films I've (read: we've) seen this year, Pedro Almodóvar’s new film, Pain and Glory ,is now making it three movie race for best movie of the year.

While on holiday in Monterey (more in another post, I assume), we hit their local art house cinema.

While I have zero desire to see a Judy Garland bio movie, had seen the Linda Ronstadt one, and while it could be interesting, but revolting, one on Roy Cohn, our first choice anyways was Pain and Glory.

Like all Almodóvar’s films, this one is in Spanish, but subtitled for us non-speakers. How I wish I could be fluent though. His film is so beautifully shot, that I struggled between looking at the art versus looking at the translation.

Antonio Banderas is so incredible, that for two hours he made me forget he had been married to substandard Melanie Griffith for like 20 years. And as well as Banderas performed - and he did - honestly all the performance were equal to his, if not surpassing. Asier Etxeandia was just exceptional, as was Leonardo Sbaraglia. Both has incredible moments. Penélope Cruz did a fine job too.

While I won't go into detail, this could be semi-autobiographical of the director, who also wrote the film.

Ironically, drug use in movies always has me uneasy, so parts of the film made me anxious. But the story is engaging and slips between current time and two periods in Salvador's (Banderas) past. There is no exposition for this and you're left to connect the dots when you can.

Clearly, I won't tell you how it ends, but it wasn't what I was anticipating.

710 and I truly enjoyed the movie and had a great discussion about it afterwards over dinner. So glad we chose to see a movie on our last full night of vacation.


and btw.......Antonio has some the hairiest armpits I've ever seen - - if you're into that thing.  I plead the Fifth on that. You only see them in the first scene though (see title image).



2019 Movie Count / Goal: 18 of 15



Song by:  Jimmie Eat World