Pain and Glory [Dolor y Gloria] ***** (2019, Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz, Asier Etxeandia, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Cecilia Roth, Julieta Serrano, Nora Navas, César Vicente) – Movie Review

Writer/ director Pedro Almodóvar’s reflective semi-autobiographical Pain and Glory [Dolor y Gloria] (2019) is tremendous, as near perfection as any film gets.

Almodóvar is on great form in serious mode in one of his best films. It is bitter-sweet but mostly just sweet. He has written a lovely introspective, stimulating screenplay, and films in brio style.

Antonio Banderas is very impressive indeed, doing some real acting, as an older gay film director reflecting on his life choices, struggling to write and work again, while suffering from physical and psychological problems, and confronting old friends. Going back to Spain, speaking Spanish, playing a gay character and working again with Almodóvar has given Banderas a real shot in the arm. He deservedly won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival (2019).

Pain and Glory [Dolor y Gloria] (2019) is provocative, imaginative and touching, and above all honest and true. It is an old-style European art film, but with a popular, playful touch.

Julieta Serrano (as Jacinta) and Banderas play mother and son movingly, and Penélope Cruz plays her enchantingly in the flashbacks.

Serrano and Banderas also played mother and son in Almodóvar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) and Matador (1986).

Alberto Iglesias’s superb score is very notable. He was nominated for Best Composer at Cannes. The film was nominated for the Palme d’Or and the Queer Palm, but Banderas was the sole winner.

There is some adult material, with drug use, graphic nudity and strong language. Hey, it’s a grown-up film.

Antonio Banderas: Best Actor at Cannes and Best European Actor at the European Film Awards.

Antonio Banderas won Best European Actor 2019 at the 32nd European Film Awards. Bravo Banderas! Almodóvar lost out as Best European Director to Yorgos Lanthimos for The Favourite, but bravo Almodóvar too for Pain and Glory!

© Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

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