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Parallel Mothers

Madres paralelas

2021

Pedro Almodóvar

Penélope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón ...

5.8

17,036

Drama Two women coincide in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, doesn’t regret it and is exultant. The other, Ana, an adolescent, is scared, repentant and traumatised. Janis tries to encourage her while they move like sleepwalkers along the hospital corridors. The few words they exchange in those hours will create a very close link between the two, which by ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"Pedro Almodóvar’s Best Since 'All About My Mother' (...) an unabashedly serious movie, one so straightforwardly sculpted and emotionally down-to-earth that there’s no distance between the audience and what’s happening onscreen."	POS
United States	David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	"While Parallel Mothers doesn’t match the intricately interwoven layers of Almodóvar’s top-tier work, that doesn’t make the melodrama any less gripping (...) It gives the marvelous Cruz one of the best roles of her career"	POS
United Kingdom	Robbie Collin Telegraph	"Parallel Mothers is a sumptuous, riveting, flirtatiously transgressive melodrama – in other words, a Pedro Almodóvar film (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Xan Brooks The Guardian	"It’s a turbulent movie. The ingredients don’t always gel. But it is so generous of spirit that it would be churlish to complain (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Lee Marshall Screendaily	"Overall, it feels as if Almodover is reuniting a favourite band here (...) But the story is fresh, and audiences won’t need any knowledge of previous works in order to appreciate the audiovisual craft and finesse on show here."	POS
United States	David Katz The Film Stage	"A film of promising ingredients sadly undercooked (...) Perhaps the best virtue of Parallel Mothers is providing a scabrous, unfiltered look into the mindset of this filmmaker"	NEU
United States	Ben Croll The Wrap	"A rougher and altogether less cohesive bit of filmmaking than his previous two outings, “Parallel Mothers” instead offers something all the more exciting: The work of an artist who’s reached the top of his craft and asked, 'What’s next?'"	POS
United States	Nicholas Barber IndieWire	"Pedro Almodóvar has made some radical and transgressive films in his time, but it’s fair to say that “Parallel Mothers” isn’t one of them. Not that that’s a complaint (...) 'Parallel Mothers' offers many delights"	POS
United States	Stephanie Zacharek Time	"Parallel Mothers is a movie of infinite tenderness, that rare ode to motherhood that acknowledges mothers as women first and mothers second (...) Cruz is astonishing here, in what may be the best performance of her career"	POS
United States	Jessica Kiang The Playlist	Almodóvar, after the comparative restraint of “Pain and Glory” and “Julieta” now comes with colors blazing, to help us relearn the lost art of being bold"	POS
United States	Leila Latif AV Club	"Outstanding melodrama (...) A beautiful tribute to their enduring, working relationship and the trust the director regularly puts in Cruz, whose performance he never surrounds with flashy flourishes"	POS
United States	Tara Bennett IGN	"'Madres paralelas' is a really engaging watch with plenty of unforeseen story turns that come together in a very intentional way. Penélope Cruz gives a powerful and beautifully relatable performance"	POS
United States	Peter Travers ABC News	"There is no director more attuned to the mesmerizing mysteries of women. And in 'Madres Paralelas', Cruz and her director breathe as one -the stirring result an emotional powerhouse"	POS
United States	Justin Chang Los Angeles Times	"'Madres paralelas', with a superb Penélope Cruz, is Almodóvar at his best (...) The genius lies in the way it gathers up so many of its maker's preoccupations and rewires them in an unexpected and entirely necessary direction"	POS
United States	Jennifer Green Common Sense Media	"Beautifully acted Spanish melodrama has mature themes, sex (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Natalia Keogan Paste Magazine	"Particularly paired with Cruz’s knockout performance, 'Madres paralelas' is a deeply political example of what is lost when we have forgotten —and what is achieved when we fight to remember"	POS
United States	Marshall Shaffer SlashFilm	"Whether viewed as an entry point or emblematic work, this film glistens as a crown jewel in Pedro Almodóvar's cap"	POS
United States	Christy Lemire rogerebert.com	"'Parallel Mothers' may look simple at the outset with its high-concept, dramatic premise, but it eventually reveals that it has much more on its mind, and in its heart (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Chuck Bowen Slant	"'Madres paralelas' movingly reckons with the past's hold on the present (...) The film is a ghost story as well as a story of transference, which Pedro Almodóvar understands to be one in the same (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Leah Greenblatt Entertainment Weekly	"Lovely film (...) A singular showcase for Cruz, [with a] lovely, lived-in performance, and for the lesser-known Smit"	POS
United Kingdom	Dave Calhoun Time Out	"Cruz is magnificent (...) Entering Almodóvar's world is a pleasure, even when we're faced with pain and tough lessons (...) His films are massive exercises in empathy (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Ian Freer Empire	"Almodóvar juggles comedy and drama to terrifically entertaining ends, aided by a tip-top Penélope Cruz. It’s hard to think of a more exciting actor-director partnership working today (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
	Marta Bałaga Cineuropa	"Almodóvar combines telenovela with a serious take on his country's unresolved past, proving that he can really do whatever he wants (...) Fun to analyse, emotionally 'Madres paralelas' doesn't hit as hard as it should"	NEU

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