Click here to copy URL

Matador

1986

Pedro Almodóvar

Assumpta Serna, Antonio Banderas, Nacho Martínez, Eva Cobo ...

5.6

6,892

Drama. Mystery. Thriller This twisted, brave, funny film from Spanish director Pedro Almodovar takes an unflinching look at the link between sex, death, and religion. Antonio Banderas stars as Angel, a sensitive student of matador Diego (Nacho Martinez), whose goring at the horns of a bull has left him obsessed with killing. In order to prove his manhood to Diego, the misguided Angel tries to rape his model girlfriend (Eva Cobo), and when that fails, he ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Vincent Canby The New York Times	"The movie looks terrific and is acted with absolute, straight-faced conviction by the excellent cast"	POS
United States	Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"This 1986 film is one of Almodovar's better features (...) Almodovar manages to do something fairly interesting and watchable with his material."	POS
United States	Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times	"The film fortunately compels more than it repels (...) [It] is a marvelously fluid and darkly sensual film in which Almodovar elicits exquisitely controlled performances."	POS
United States	Hal Hinson The Washington Post	"The characters aren't so much real figures as embodiments of psychological drives and impulses (...) Still, the director and his screen-writing partner, Jesus Ferrero, draw them with great conviction."	NEU
United Kingdom	Allan Hunter Screendaily	"'Matador' is a stepping stone to the films that would cement Almodovar’s reputation as the most famous Spanish director since Luis Buñuel."	POS
United Kingdom	Geoff Andrew Time Out	"Not so much a maelstrom as a mess of contrived eroticism, pretentious dialogue, and voyeuristic sensationalism"	NEG
United Kingdom	Kim Newman Empire	"Screamingly funny, intriguing meditation on sex and violence (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	June Thomas Slate	"Flawed and creepy (...) The last (thank goodness) of Almodóvar’s three films to feature a character with superhuman powers."	NEG

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.