Who’s Janis Joplin?

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's top 50 films of 2022

#3 :  Madres Paralelas (Parallel Mothers)

Penélope Cruz and Pedro Almodóvar collaborate once again to tremendous effect; this time Cruz plays a woman sharing the same maternity ward as a much younger, troubled mother to be (played by Milena Smit).

I never think I like Pedro Almodóvar films, but when I look through his filmography, I have to report that I've seen exactly none of them - so I'm probably not in the best place to comment really, am I?  So let's break that duck, shall we?

Hmmm - it's very earnest.  It does indeed follow Penélope Cruz and Milena Smit as they experience motherhood - in a parallel fashion, unsurprisingly.  It spends half an hour going nowhere and then, out of left field - BOOM!  Well, I wasn't expecting that.  And then, from further out - DOUBLE BOOM!  Blimey.  All of a sudden we've got ourselves a proper story.  And that's all I'm going to tell you, except for saying that the film raises quite a few interesting points that I'd like to discuss, but can't because of spoilers.  And then it kinda does nothing with them...

Penélope Cruz and Milena Smit are both great in this - their relationship in the film changes over time and they sell their different roles and motivations well.  Israel Elejaide is also good as Arturo, the token man/anthropologist - every film needs a token anthropologist, right?

The overall aesthetic is a bit odd - it's quite melodramatic and soapy and really not helped by the bizarre music which has a very cheesy 60s sitcom style.  However, with themes including motherhood, guilt, fascism and redemption, it's fair to say this film couldn't be more Spanish if it tried.  Another thing you can quite safely say about this film is that it passes the Bechdel test - it has hardly anything other than conversations between women in it and they're never discussing men.  It also doesn't really end in the way that I was expecting - for such a melodramatic film it has quite a low-key ending.

So - did I like it?  I didn't not like it, but it also didn't overly engage me.  It started very slowly (I probably would have given up on it under normal circumstances), introduced a couple of interesting plot devices and then resolved them in a surprisingly understated fashion so I was definitely left thinking "Huh - was that it?".  But the performances are good and it taught me a bit about the Spanish Civil War, so it's not all bad - I've no idea whether that will be enough to interest you.  If it is, then it's available to rent in all the usual places - I can't say my opinion of Pedro has massively improved, but at least I have the one film to base that opinion on now.

#4 - A film plenty of people should watch
#2 - An absolute gem of a film

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