Parallel Mothers (2022) - Movie Review

Pedro Almodóvar has a new film out this year. And that name had damn-well better sound familiar to my readers, given how much I gushed over his last film Pain And Glory, my favourite film of 2019 and one of the best films about filmmaking of the entire 2010s. But with that same enthusiasm I showed not that long ago, there’s a good chance that I’m just setting up whatever he has next to fail. I mean, don’t get me wrong, this film is still very, very good, but take my minor gripes to follow with a grain of salt, as I may have already spoilt myself when it comes to this guy at his best.

Pain And Glory (2019) - Movie Review

In an effort to keep my writing from getting too stale, which during this time of year is especially on my mind, I try and look at different films through different lenses. Sometimes, it’s as a fan of the film’s pre-existing franchise; sometimes, it’s by latching onto a single detail in the production that I feel explains everything else around it; and sometimes, it’s just me working through my own lack of interest and squeezing my brain for anything to write about. But more than anything else, the main thing I go into every single film I review on here, and hell, pretty much every film I’ve ever watched, is through the perspective of therapy. A form of art that has the potential to help me, and other audiences, deal with some kind of personal shit. Enter this film, where that perspective comes screaming into the forefront.