A deeply nuanced portrayal of female bonds.

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

Cruz may not be the favorite in the Best Actress race, but her performance in Pedro Almodóvar’s film is, well, unparalleled.

| Mar 23, 2022

I was both fairly sure what Parallel Mothers might be, and eager to be surprised. Thankfully, Almodóvar delivers on both fronts – as Almodóvar should almost always be entrusted to do.

| Feb 8, 2022

If you're already a fan of Almodovar's work this is essential viewing; if you haven't been introduced to his very special world before, Parallel Mothers will be a great place to start.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Feb 1, 2022

Most of all, it's Cruz who sets the tone, with a performance that radiates warmth and is refreshingly forgiving of her character's flaws. She has never been better.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 29, 2022

Even the dark excavation at the heart of the enterprise is delivered with wit, warmth and eye-popping colours.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 28, 2022

What won't be a surprise for those familiar with Almodóvar is the film's mix of restraint and extravagance, the director's delirious use of color, his ecstatic aesthetic and a sense of the theatrical.

| Jan 28, 2022

I left the screening drenched in tears.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 28, 2022

This emphasis on moral integrity stamps it as one of Almodovar's most important and engaging films in some time.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 28, 2022

It's chaotic, at times, but it's pure. Doesn't that describe so much of who Almodóvar is as a filmmaker?

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 28, 2022

Here we've often no idea what direction it's going to take and although the focus shifts it never feels fragmented. Instead, it all adds up to an immensely rich, satisfying whole.

| Jan 27, 2022

Almodóvar is not typically one for messages, but... hard-won truths gleam from his quietly knockout new movie.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 27, 2022

What an emotional experience.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 27, 2022

This is Pedro Almodóvar's 22nd film, and his seventh with Cruz. Is there another actor who more deftly combines high-wattage glamour and technical skill with a kind of shrugging casualness?

| Jan 26, 2022

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 22, 2022

Almodóvar handles the material with poise and a nimble hand, and fills his frames with bold splashes of color and lively visual poetry.

| Original Score: A- | Jan 20, 2022

Melodrama mixes with light-hearted touches, moral dilemmas, and historical reckoning in Almodóvar's latest.

| Jan 20, 2022

Generations pass, this wise movie tells us; family endures.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 18, 2022

As ever with Almodóvar's films, to enter his world is a pleasure - even when we're faced with pain and tough lessons.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 14, 2022

There are more twists and turns in Parallel Mothers that I won't disclose but the film is mesmerizing.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 14, 2022