All About My Mother Reviews

Derived from several cinematic sources: the high-flown Hollywood style-over-substance ethos of Douglas Sirk and George Cukor; the psychosexual perversity of Alfred Hitchcock; the grubby transgressions of Warhol, "All About My Mother" is a lush sojourn into the banalities, crises and exoticism of a group of interconnecting Madrid women, the gender and identity of which the film ostensibly celebrates. Resplendent in its indelible, kaleidoscopic colour palette, the captivating theatrical pace, naturalistic yet demonstrative performances, hyper-realistic, sumptuous chronicle of transformation, deviation and altered states, from gender to family are propelled by authentic dialogue exchanges, visual exuberance and breezy situational, farcical comedy that can succeed tragedy. All of these themes and styles directly echo and correlate with Almodóvar's previous work, but unlike its more dramatic predecessors, "All About My Mother" is more vivid, perhaps driven by a need to design an artistic antidote to dramatic conceit, constructing an intoxicating series of acts that allow for a zealous new take on a forgotten film formula, whereby the scenery, characters and their interactions dominate the screen rather than the soapy plot; what unfolds is an accessible, distinctive, glossy modern melodrama that fully deserved its plaudits.

I already saw this movie (in fact, I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released) but, since it was such a long time ago, I was quick eager to check it out again. Well, I’m really glad I gave this movie a 2nd chance after all these years because I was much more able to appreciate it the 2nd time around. First of all, Pedro Almodovar is one of those directors that I have always admired but he never became a personal favorite of mine. Indeed, he is what you can call a real author who has created his own style and, therefore, he always got my respect but, honestly, I always had a hard time with his work and this movie was not an exception. Indeed, The 1st time I saw it, I was around 20 years old only and I didn’t feel much a connection with the damned thing (back then, I hadn’t seen yet ‘All about Eve’ so that’s already a reference I completely missed). I still think it is a rather complex story, even seriously convoluted, but it is something to be expected from this director. What really touched me this time was the fact that it was focusing only on female characters (there are a few male characters but with very little screen time and very little impact) and they were all quite fascinating to behold. The cast involved was also really strong. At the end of the day, this movie did develop the usual themes you can find in almost all Almodovar’s work as it focused on some rather messed-up and sometimes annoying women but, this time around, he managed to go even deeper than usual and the end-result was quite amazing. Eventually, it is thanks to this movie that Almodovar started to gain some real worldwide success (it even won the Academy Award for the Best Foreign movie). To be honest, I think that his following feature, ‘Hable con ella’, was actually more compelling but it is all a matter of taste and I can understand why this movie is considered as Pedro Almodovar’s magnum opus. Anyway, to conclude, it is indeed one of the best movies delivered by the Spanish master it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Almodovar’s work.