Whatever the case, this is bravura film-making, as Almodóvar brings humour and humanity to a story which in less assured hands, could easily have played like a corny soap opera.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 17, 2025

A deeply nuanced portrayal of female bonds.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 23, 2024

Like several of Almodóvar's mother melodramas, Parallel Mothers oscillates between the “bad mother” and the “good mother.” The symbolic parallels constantly, redefine the narrative, linking the themes of the violation of human rights and identity.

| Original Score: 8.5/10 | Aug 18, 2024

Take a seat and let the story captivate you from the first words to the very last frame.

| Mar 1, 2024

This is Almodóvar at his most political and romantic, an absolute treat for all of the senses.

| Feb 24, 2024

This marks the 7th film Cruz and Almodóvar have made together, and you can see how well they understand each other as artists.

| Feb 13, 2024

Lightness of touch is not a virtue usually associated with the exuberant Madrileño maestro, but he draws these themes together with gossamer delicacy.

| Sep 15, 2023

But after six decades, Almodóvar is finally ready to confront this generational, systemic trauma head-on, and the result will be poignant even for viewers unfamiliar with the history that provides the backdrop for the personal stories.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 16, 2023

Parallel Mothers holds an unexpectedly shocking narrative about motherhood, featuring two remarkable performances from Penélope Cruz and Milena Smit.

| Original Score: B | Jul 25, 2023

An intimate story of two women making their way as new mothers, Almodovar also folds in Spanish history... stunning.

| Dec 30, 2022

The intimate drama and national tragedy intertwine. It's beautiful and painful. Very much. Just as it should be. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 20, 2022

Parallel Mothers benefits from Cruz’s top-notch work and an ongoing emphasis on admittedly spellbinding plot twists and surprises...

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 16, 2022

Not the filmmaker’s greatest by a long shot, but his loyal followers won’t be worried by slight dips in quality and substance.

| Sep 8, 2022

Parallel Mothers doesn’t quite scale the heights of Pedro Almodóvar’s best work, but a phenomenal Penélope Cruz makes it worth a watch regardless.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 1, 2022

Its infatuated with narrating, with much poignancy, a melodrama about motherhood and the historical memory of a nation that forgets the tragic past buried underground, with nothing revealing on the surface. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 5/10 | Aug 31, 2022

“Parallel Mothers” shines brightest as a female-centric examination of motherhood, complete with all its joys and heartaches. Single parenting, absent fathers, family history – they all factor in.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 16, 2022

The personal overlaps with the political, the familial with the historical, in Parallel Mothers.

| Aug 8, 2022

Sensual and savvy and always sublime, Parallel Mothers sells everything within its immaculate frames — and surrendering to its emotional, visual and thematic pull is as natural as life and death.

| Jun 25, 2022

The titular parallelism isn't in Janis and Ana's stories, but in what they symbolize so we can understand the pain of all the mothers affected by the [Spanish] Civil War and its consequences. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jun 23, 2022

A perfect storm of melodramatic plot elements, complex emotional reactions, and wild deceptions, it requires on the part of its director a simultaneous iron grip on tone, together with a certain paradoxical lightness of touch.

| Jun 1, 2022