[Director Pedro Almodóvar] is adapting a novel by Ruth Rendell, one of our own queens of crime. Yet there is nothing anonymous about this full-blooded, constantly surprising thriller.

| Feb 1, 2023

A single ricochet gunshot propels the plot and dramatically alters the lives of the quintet. The result is a vengeful, five-way battle of wits.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 9, 2018

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 7, 2011

The overall purpose of Live Flesh, the latest and reputedly most 'mature' work from Spanish bad-boy director Pedro Almodovar, remains engigmatic.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 12, 2002

Almodovar, whose work here has newly sophisticated polish, appreciates the dark twists of this story along with the eroticism that bring heat to all the scheming.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Despite his erotic fixations, Pedro Almodvar is the cinema's last true innocent.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Almodovar seems more assured here, confident that he can interest us without overt winking and tomfoolery.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

I can only conclude that the people who think Flower and Live Flesh represent the new, mature Almodvar think that his earlier pictures were immature.

| Jan 1, 2000

It's an impressive display of range from one of film's true maverick talents.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

While despair underlies Almodovar's film...the director attempts to lighten up with some misplaced jokes. These, though, are never any more than a brief respite from the irritating mess in which the characters embroil themselves.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 1, 2000

This is the first Almodovar movie that could be called boring.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 1, 2000

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 16, 1998