Live Flesh
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Movie Reviews of Live Flesh
Movie Review: A brilliant erotic thriller
Summary: 5 Stars
Almodovar here shucks his tendency to blend campy sexuality and what he calls "screwball drama" for a strong work that instead fuses intense, real eroticism and the violence of a thriller into a powerful drama of fever-pitch emotionality. Victor, born on a bus in a more typical Almodovar opening sequence featuring Penelope Cruz as his mother, is a loner and a man on the edge. He stalks Elena, a junkie-prostitute-drug dealer and forces his way inside her apartment. When two cops subsequently bust her for possession, they don't count on Victor, there with her, who pulls a gun on the cops in a scene that ends with one of them being paralyzed from a shot to the base of his spine.
Victor is nabbed and sent to prison. On his release, he discovers that Elena, whom he still lusts for, is now married to the paralyzed cop. And of course Victor cannot leave well enough alone.
It's the interplay of the second cop, the second cop's wife, Victor, and Elena that brings the emotional fluids here to a boil. The story development including surprising revelations establishes a momentum that results in a climax more than worthy of the preceding events, and that more than justifies the label of thriller for this film.
Lust, jealousy, murder, betrayal--all the juicy stuff that thrillers are made of--are, in the hands of a unique Spanish director, given a searing life of their own. It's truly a wonder to see this perfect mesh of out-of-control emotions, Spanish culture, and dazzling eroticism.
A brilliant film. Although All About My Mother is superb, it is more a return to Almodovar's sensibilities. Live Flesh is unique and is even unique for Almodovar. This makes it really special.
Movie Review: Heady stuff that never compromises - typical Almodovar
Summary: 5 Stars
"Live Flesh" begins with Victor Plaza being born on a bus in Franco's Spain in 1970 and ends, twenty six years later, with... well, I wont spoil the ending; but typically with Almodovar, it is fitting and poetic. In between, we follow Victor on his journey into manhood, as he learns the hard way about disillusion, betrayal, love, lust, life, death, and tragedy. As a young man, Victor believes that a one-off sexual encounter with a beautiful Italian junkie is something more than it is, and pesters her to such an extent that she draws a gun on him in order to get him to leave. A struggle ensues. The gun accidentally goes off, and although noone is hurt, it brings the unwelcome attention of two policemen. Another struggle ensues. Another shot is fired. One of the policemen is paralysed from the waist down. From then on, all four of their lives become tragically entwined; with deception and misunderstanding leading towards bitterness and envy. Inevitably, the lies are stripped away, unwanted truths are revealed, and all the various dilemmas are resolved amidst a scene of emotional and actual carnage.
This must sound like heady stuff, almost melodramatic? It is. This is Almodovar, after all. There is the usual complex plotting that reveals the strains that pull apart and bring together relationships while the emotional lives of the characters are laid bare. There is the relentless drive to resolve the emotional dilemmas while avoiding sentimentality. In short, there are all the usual touches that one expects from Almodovar, including the wonderful acting from the cast. Wonderful! A film that will draw you back again and again and again.
Movie Review: Among Almodovar's Very Best!
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the first Almodovar movie in which he used a higher picture quality, giving it a more hollywood look, ON THE SURFACE, but this is not hollywood-esque by any means other than that. The charcters are very Almodovar, in that most of them have serious issues. The Almodovar humor, like the grandma cutting the umbilical cord with her teeth, is there as well.The story has to do with Victor, a young, naive pizza delivery boy who has a quick fling with a drugged out daughter of an Italian diplomat. He eventually finds her, and gets involved in a scuffle with her in her apartment, causing some neighbors to call over the police. The police confront the couple, a shot ends up being fired, and so commences our bizarre, black comedy, tragic love story. The acting is great, great script, beautifully shot, it really is an excellent film.
It is great to see legends like Pedro Almodovar continuing to get better and better. His last three have just been phenomanal, "All about my mother", "Live Flesh" and "Talk to her", can'd wait for his next release, "Bad Education" featuring Gael Garcia Bernal.
Movie Review: Almodovar's steamy spin on film noir . . .
Summary: 5 Stars
British crime writer Ruth Rendell gets credit for the original story of this film. But it's hard to picture the kind of darkly original psychological study that director Pedro Almodovar started with because his stamp is all over this film - that unmistakable mix of melodrama, steamy scenes of passion, and quirky comedy. Beefy Javier Bardem comes on strong here as the Russell Crowe of Spanish cinema, graduating from smoothly suited cop to sweaty, muscular disabled basketball player in a wheelchair.
Meanwhile, his apparent nemesis is a young man who has served time for the shooting that crippled him and is now out of prison and settling old scores, which involves romancing two strategically selected married women. (Don't want to give too much away here.) This being an Almodovar film, the young man is handsome and sweetly charming. Even his schemes, when we learn them, are more poignant than ill-willed.
This is Almodovar's spin on film noir. Not as brilliant as "Talk to Her" and "All About My Mother," but definitely worth a watch.
Movie Review: Mas historias de amor...
Summary: 5 Stars
De Almodovar hemos aprendido mucho en lo que a cine latinoamericano se refiere dentro de los ultimos 20 años, ha sido escandaloso,anti-moralista, a veces complicado.. siempre he notado dos facetas muy marcadas dentro de su obra, La pasion y la muerte siempre abrazadas, siempre juntas... es brillante escritor de historias, director muy vivo y yo diria que un poco influenciado por Kubrick en cuanto a detalles en la escenografia se refiere, y a Hicthcock en el tema misterioso.Esta sin lugar a dudas es para mi su mejor pelicula, reconoci de inmediato su idea de adaptarse a filosfias mas contemporaneas, a cambiar su cine con los tiempos modernos. Es una sufrida y dificil historia de amor pero que da en el punto de la realidad y marca huella en el publico.