‘Bitter Christmas’ Review: Pedro Almodóvar’s Playful New Film Nests Stories Within Stories, and Alter Egos Within Alter Egos
As self-referencing as 2019's 'Pain and Glory' but without that film's deeper personal resonance, this Cannes competition entry is quintessential but not vintage Almodóvar: enjoyable and immaculately art-directed and color-blocked, as per, but it doesn't leave you much to hold onto.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
@guylodge See All
Early in Pedro Almodóvar’s new film “Bitter Christmas,” a female filmmaker is briefly hospitalized, and the attending physician recognizes her as the director of an offbeat film from some years before. “I hear it became a cult film,” says the good doctor. “What does that mean? Cult? Evangelical?” It’s a good question. The films of Almodóvar long ago became too broadly popular and acclaimed to merit the “cult” label, but if any filmmaker could be called the cult leader of their own cinema, it might be him: His work is so wrapped up in his own highly singular imagination, personality and, lately, even specific first-hand experience, you could accuse it of self-reverence if not for a healthy sense of humor and irony.
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