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Reviews
Mujeres al borde de un ataque de "nervios" (1988)
One of the best and funniest movies I've ever seen! A masterpiece
One really needs to speak Spanish, and even more precisely, Castilian to get all the nuances, tones, inflections, subtext and jokes of this movie. It is a masterpiece, but subtitles cannot do this film justice. Pedro Almodovar is a genius of intuitive and creative direction. He is a sublime sociologist and ironic historian of the Spain post-Franco. He writes his own scripts which shows the scope of his cinematographic qualities. I know this film almost by heart. I need to specially mention Maria Barranco's creation of Candela: SUPERB and hilarious! The rest of the cast are incredible, from Rossy de Palma to a top-form Carmen Maura. Antonio Banderas does not have the best lines since this movie is really about Mujeres (Women), but he still manages a good performance.
Flawless (1999)
Philip S Hoffman: WOW! We are all the same, after all...
Life is not easy, we need each other to go on, above all when we are different, marginated, lonely.
We have two personal stories seemingly unrelated and diametrically opposed: A macho tango dancer, past hero, retired cop and a singing drag queen who aspires to be a "real woman". Schummacher meshes this two stories into one almost flawlessly.
This movie was a millimeter short of being brilliant. There were a couple of scenes that did not add anything to the story or the characters, for instance the fight after the final of the beauty contest. Nevertheless I was mesmerized by the flawless acting of Mr. Hoffman. I have seen him and liked him in Magnolia and The Talented Mr. Ripley, among others, but he has gone to the top of the class with his portrait of Rusty. And to do that opposite "one of the greatest" and personal favorite Robert De Niro himself.
The plot itself reminded me of another good movie "As good as it gets": Homophobe (Jack Nicholson) has gay neighbor whom he despises. Gay neighbor gets in trouble , homophobe helps him. They become friends crossing their own barriers of prejudice. In "Flawless" both get in trouble and both help each other, thus redeeming themselves and the rest of us in the process. We are all the same after all...
I laughed and was entertained. Do not miss the final credits! Go and see it!