Thursday, March 10, 2022

Review of Parallel Mothers

Almodovar's films just keep getting better. This one is part personal drama, part political exploration about contemporary Spain. It's hard to talk about the personal bit without spoiling it...except to say that Penelope Cruz is one of the two mothers in the plot, and though she is still beautiful as ever, she presents a lot of emotional range as an actor in this too. So does Milena Smith (not seen her before) as the other, younger mother...and nice to see Rossy de Palma (she of the amazing nose) back in business.

The political part is about exhumations of anonymous mass graves from the Civil War - Cruz's character wants an excavation of a village unmarked grave where her great -grandfather is reputedly buried, and the male lead is the forensic anthropologist who carries this out. Along the way there's discussion of Spain's unexamined past and the fault lines that still run through its society.

Watched via VLC, Chromecast, and informal distribution.

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