Category: SPANISH

– emotionally compelling Spanish / French drama is borderline taboo as a 39 year old grieving mother becomes intimate friends with a 16 year old boy at a beach resort. Although it remains an interesting and engaging work and is disconcerting throughout, its characters never behave believably enough to deliver the emotional punch it intends.

– mixed german / spanish language World War 2 drama details the efforts of a young photographer to secretly preserve evidence of crimes committed in the prisoner of war camp where he’s detained. It’s not particularly showy or remarkable, and definitely nowhere near genre leading, but it’s a heartfelt, engaging, and dare I say it, slightly uplifting story.

– powerful spanish language drama depicts the extraordinary life of a man in hiding during Spain’s civil war and the years beyond. Surprising and illuminating.

– Contrasted with the full gamut of spanish-language cinema, this Havana based drama is certainly not knocking any crowns off, but it’s still a raw and characterful tale. The first two thirds are quite excellent and engaging, but the final third unfortunately falls a little short, if only because of its soaring ambition. Worth watching, though.

– Mournful Spanish-language drama is a beautiful if overly ponderous reflection on life and love and the sickness of nostalgia.

– delightfully warm reflection on the transition from Pope Benedict to Pope Francis, featuring immense performances from both Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins, and a witty script.

– bizarre, surrealist drama sees a family forced to share a villa at a holiday resort. Something sinister is afoot, but it’s never exactly clear what. Confounding in all the wrong ways.

– Engaging spanish language drama with a cast that is strong enough to warrant the viewing alone. Gabriel Garcia Bernal is always an extraordinary screen presence, and he’s wonderful here.

– quietly affecting, understated spanish drama. Engrossing, but not remarkable.

– Absolute balls. Eye-rolling and cringe inducing melodrama. Nauseatingly saccharine, self-indulgent, badly edited and painfully ponderous (with a runtime that’s an exercise in audience tolerance). Among its other crimes, it somehow depicts the Spanish as the victims of their own colonial era in Guinea. Quite the feat.

– affecting and unpleasant spanish language drama, too doleful to be enjoyable

– Spanish psychological drama following a man who becomes so obsessive about writing his novel he manipulates his neighbours to engineer increasingly outlandish storylines. Mostly compelling but becomes increasingly absurd and farcical as it wears on. The ending is disappointingly prosaic.

– unexpectedly engaging single room, minimal cast drama. Sparks fly and intrigue grips even past the end.

– Well crafted Spanish drama from Almodovar. Excellent acting and solid plot. Filled with the usual Almodovar tropes and on the nose political statements though.

– one of the most boring Spanish films I have watched. Dreary and uneventful drama, not worth the time.

– told episodically, this biographical drama isn’t easy viewing. It is slow and long and feels longer still. That said, it is well made and well acted. If you like poetic cinema, Javier Bardem and the melody of spanish, then this might hold something for you.