Tuesday, July 23, 2013

I'M SO EXCITED

When WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN came out in 1988 it did for post-Franco Spain what THE COMMITMENTS did for the Irish and Ireland when it came out, changed the way an entire culture and country was seen by the rest of the world.

The writer/director Pedro Almadovar became an international sensation, and like a lot of people I followed his career by watching his movies pretty consistently. I missed a few of his more serious and perhaps more demanding films, but despite some dismissive and outright hostile reviews for his latest as being too slight, too contrived, even too silly and campy (which Almadovar pretty much defined for our times so how he could be extreme at that was baffling to me and I wanted to see), I joined a couple of friends for a matinee today and was pleasantly surprised, or maybe ultimately not, to be delightedly satisfied.

If you don't like over the top campy comedy, don't see it. But if you want to escape and have a few really big laughs as well as watch a lot of wonderful actors have fun with their roles, go see I'M SO EXCITED. You will enjoy seeing cameos by Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, two international movie stars who got their first breaks from Almadovar, but for me it's always the women in Almadovar's movies that make them worthwhile. Yes there's a lot of great males including some young handsome discoveries I'm sure the women will enjoy, but it's actresses like Blanca Suarez, Lola Duenas and Cecilia Roth that captured my imagination and made me want to see more of them.

At any rate, for a fun time, it's worth the price of admission.

No comments: