This is a wonderful notional career retrospective of filmmaker "Salvador Mallo" (Antonio Banderas) who has a reached an age where he struggles with painkillers and mobility issues - and so embarks on a bit of nostalgia reliving his life. This will one day be described as a classic. Almodóvar at his most pure, grafting the fiction to the fact in such a beautifully crafted way that it is almost impossible to know how you feel whilst you watch it. Banderas is wonderful. He delivers the emotion and the humour - and there is enough of the latter to adequately temper the more emotional aspects of his performance - with consummate skill. Penélope Cruz who always seems more stunning every time she appears on screen plays his mother and even sings - what more could you ask for? In theory, there ought be little joy in this retrospective, but the self-discovery delivers a surprising amount of fulfilment and there is humour to be found here, too.

If you were to tell me that ‘Pain and Glory’ was Pedro Almodóvar’s final film, I would be inclined to believe you. Rarely has the act of looking back on one's past been so vividly and honestly depicted, and so richly and emotionally satisfying. You can feel the need for this film to exist in every frame, a need to understand and reflect and celebrate and mourn. It is a portrait of an artist at a crossroads, entering the last act of their lives, looking back at what they have created and the battlefield left in their wake, and facing the terror of never creating again. ‘Pain and Glory’ is an intensely beautiful film, one that hangs in the air around you like a perfume for days after. The more I think back on it, the more certain I am that I’ve seen a masterwork. I cannot wait to see it again.
- Daniel Lammin

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https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-pain-and-glory-almodovar-delivers-a-rhapsodic-masterwork