Pedro Almodovar has long been extolled as Spain's preeminent film auteur. After making short films for six years from 1974 to 1980, Almodovar made his feature film debut with the comedy Pepi, Luci, Bom. Twenty years later, Almodovar's magnificent movie All About My Mother won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film. In 2002, Almodovar won another Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for his film Talk to Her.
Littered with strong colorful characters, unpredictable story twists, and a uniquely important voice that echoes through it all, Almodovar's movies are unlike any in cinematic history. And with two more features currently in pre-production, Almodovar is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
10 Julieta (2016) 83%
While Almodovar's sublime 1995 dramedy The Flower of My Secret also boasts an 83% RT score, his 2016 film Julieta has garnered more votes en route to becoming Certified Fresh.
Julieta tells of the titular character (Emma Suarez), a woman planning to move from Madrid to Portugal with her boyfriend. Before doing so, Julieta runs into a friend of her estranged daughter Anita (Priscilla Delgado), who tells her that Anita lives in Switzerland with her three children. With the news, Julieta forgoes Portugal and moves back to her old home in the hope Anita will write to her one day.
9 Bad Education (2004) 88%
Bad Education is an explicit NC-17-rated coming-of-age tale in which impressionable teenagers Enrique (Fele Martinez) and Ignacio (Francisco Boira) explore their sexual adolescence with the help of a Catholic schoolteacher in the 1960s.
Father Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho) introduces the boys to film and literature and helps them break out of their oppressive religious upbringing and shape them into adults. When the three characters meet decades later, they still feel the effects of their time together.
8 Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (1988) 90%
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is a wild, colorful, highly engrossing screwball comedy in which a TV star named Pepa (Carmen Maura) just wants to figure out what happened to her missing lover.
As she searches for a simple answer, Pepa encounters one eccentric character after another. Some have answers to Ivan's (Fernando Guillen) whereabouts, while others like his wife and child haven't the faintest idea.
7 Labyrinth Of Passion (1982) 91%
Labyrinth of Passion is a campy and kitschy melodramatic affair in which a promiscuous named "Sexilia" (Cecilia Roth) becomes romantically entangled with a gay imperial named Riza (Imanol Arias).
The affair comes about when Riza learns that Sadec (Antonio Banderas), a terrorist, plans to kill him harm over a past grievance. Riza then disguises himself as a punk rocker, goes on the lam, and soon falls for Sexilia during a random encounter.
6 Volver (2006) 91%
Almodovar's Volver earned his longtime collaborator Penelope Cruz an Academy Award nomination for her splendid turn as Raimunda, a loving mother who returns to her hometown near Madrid for her own mom's funeral.
Upon arrival, Raimunda's complicated past comes to haunt her in ways that defy description. With a light touch, Almodovar explores themes of murder, sexual abuse, incest, senility, and what it means to truly love and protect a family member no matter the cost.
5 Matador (1986) 92%
Matador is an NC-17-rated erotic black-comedy thriller that traces the exploits of Angel (Antonio Banderas), a virginal and vertiginous bull-fighting student who confesses to a slew of murders that he's innocent of.
Angel takes his cues from Diego (Nacho Martinez), an ex-bullfighter who gets turned on sexually by watching slasher films. As Angel begins envisioning the murders before they happen, he must figure out how involved his teacher is before more lives are taken.
4 Talk To Her (2002) 92%
Almodovar's Talk To Her won an Oscar and a BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay and a Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Foreign-Language Film.
The film follows Marco (Mario Grandinetti) and Begnini (Javier Martin), two strangers who meet and forge a strange relationship while looking after comatose women they love. In Marco's case, he nurses his injured bullfighter girlfriend Lydia (Rosario Flores) while Begnini cares for Alicia (Leonor Watling), a ballet student that he's infatuated with. All four lives intersect in unexpected ways.
3 Pain And Glory (2019) 96%
Almodovar's most recent feature, Pain and Glory, is a semiautobiographical film in which Antonio Banderas plays the Spanish auteur in the autumn of his life. With fewer days ahead of him than behind, Sal Mallo (Banderas) reflects on his past triumphs and tribulations.
As he begins to take stock of his personal and professional life, Sal recalls his childhood and several key events that shaped him into the uncompromising artist he's become. Banderas earned an Oscar nomination for his performance, while the film lost to Parasite for Best International film.
2 All About My Mother (1999) 98%
Almodovar's heartwrenching drama All About My Mother might be his crowning career achievement. The movie follows Manuela (Cecilia Roth), a single mother who presses on after a devastating accident and turns tragedy into triumph unlike any other.
Grief-stricken by the sudden death of a loved one, Manuela flees town and meets a series of extremely colorful strangers, and manages to touch their lives in the most profound ways as a de facto mother figure. The movie won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
1 Law Of Desire (1987) 100%
Almodovar's progressive tale, Law of Desire, follows a gay film and theater director named Pablo (Eusebio Poncela) and the complicated relationship he has with his trans sister, Tina (Carmen Maura).
While searching for his lover Juan (Miguel Molina), Pablo strikes a bond with a stranger named Antonio (Antonio Banderas). When Antonio catches wind of Pablo's love for Juan, he seeks to harm Juan so he can have the man to himself. Worse yet, Antonio begins seeing Tina behind his back, leading to a frenzied finale.
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