Pain and Glory 2019

     Salvador Mallo is at the decline of his career and his physical health.  He involuntarily looks back into the past and a stream of vivid memories fall upon him.  He recalls his youth and tender feelings for his mother.  Also, love and separation plus the search for happiness and success.  All this remembering leads to thoughts about life and art, this is the most important thing for him.

     This film is partly an autobiographical narrative showing aging, loneliness, appreciation for the opportunity to follow the path of his work and the importance of the people around him.  These ideas are all well and good but the film itself seems WEIRD and I have to put that in capital letters?  Possibly it is the extreme use of heroin at one point in his life?

     This film contains mature topics like aging, death, drug addiction and desire.  A dominant mother figure, poverty, Catholic schooling, Spain’s urban-rural divide, the power of movies, sexual identity, creative drive and love.  Long medical explanations of various age-related ailments and how this affects people psychologically.  2 1/2* (this movie is so-so)    

     Note:  Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 118 ratings, Imdb 6.6 out of 10 with 75 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 97% with 286 critics 91% with 364 ratings, RollingStone 4 1/2* Peter Travers, Metacritic 87 out of 100 with 43 critics (39 positive 4 mixed) 7.9 out of 10 with 111 ratings (88 positive, 21 mixed, negative 2), Common Sense Media Jennifer Green, aged 17+, 2* positive, 2* role models, 1* violence, 5* sex, 3* language, 1* consumerism, 5* drinking, drugs, smoking. 

  
Special Note:  Julieta Serrano and Antonio Banderas played mother and son more than 30 year ago.  They were in two other movies by Pedreo Almodovar, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown 1988 and Matador 1986.  This is Almodovar’s eighth collaboration with Antonio Banderas and his sixth with Penelope Cruze.  This film marks his second collaboration with both of them together.  The first film was I’m So Excited 2013.  Agustin Almodovar, Pedro’s brother and producer of this movie makes a cameo.  He is a teacher and priest in a flashback when Banderas’ character is a small boy.

113 min, Drama directed and written by Pedro Almodovar with Antonio Banderas, Asier Etxeandia, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Nora Nava, Julieta Serrano, Cesar Vicente, Asier Flores, Penelope Cruz, Cecilia Roth, Susi Sanchez, Paul Arevalo, Pedro Casablanc, Julian Lopez.