Welcome to How to Start Watching, in which our staff will recommend movies that will help you start watching a particular genre, director, film movement, etc. It’s a list of movies, but with a purpose that isn’t recounting the best or even favorites. Each entry will suggest a few films that will help you find a way into more movies! A starter pack, if you will.

by Gary M. Kramer, Staff Writer

Pedro Almodóvar, whose Parallel Mothers is now in theaters, first started getting attention in the U.S. back in 1985, when his film, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, became a cult hit. Its release signaled a cheeky, irreverent new Spanish filmmaker from the post-Franco era. This farce about a sexually and emotionally frustrated housewife (the director’s then muse, Carmen Maura) showcased the Spanish filmmaker’s penchant for offbeat humor, sexual provocativeness, and bold colors. 

Almodóvar continued to impress his growing fanbase with his subsequent releases—Matador (1986), Law of Desire (1987)—but it was his 1988 breakthrough, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, that solidified his status as an auteur. (It also scored an Oscar nomination.) Yet he encountered trouble with censors soon after—Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989) garnered an NC-17 rating for a naughty bathtub scene. But over time, Almodóvar’s films started to become more mature, and more thoughtful. All About My Mother (1999) won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Talk to Her (2002) scored Almodóvar a Best Director Oscar nomination and a statue for Best Original Screenplay. 

While Almodóvar has been praised for his films, I take issue with the director’s frequent comic depictions of rape. Another thread in his ouvre is that Almodóvar often reworks scenes from one of his earlier films in his later efforts.

Here are five films to watch to get to know Almodóvar. (Portions of this material have been excerpted from reviews I have published elsewhere). 

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1989)

This hilarious farce showcases everything Almodóvar. Pepa (Carmen Maura) is distraught because her lover, Iván has left her. But she can’t focus on her problems because everyone else brings theirs to her apartment. It would spoil the comedy to reveal what outrageous things unfold, but there is spiked gazpacho, a bedroom fire, gunplay, and more than a few objects thrown out of a window. Stylishly filmed and featuring a young Antonio Banderas (who appears in many Almodóvar films), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was typical of the madcap comedies the filmmaker made in his early career (Labyrinth of Passion) and a good template for his recent farce, I’m So Excited, which is also worth a look. (Fun Fact: Almodóvar’s 2009 film, Broken Embraces, features a character making a film called Girls and Suitcases, that closely resembles Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, with Penélope Cruz in the lead role.)

Bad Education (2004)

A complex but brilliant film, featuring Gael Garcia Bernal in multiple roles (including one in drag), this noir addresses love and sex, obsession, identity, blackmail and revenge as well as murder. It’s told with flashbacks within flashbacks, and using real and imagined plotlines, which became an Almodóvar signature. It is a visually and emotionally stunning drama about Ignacio (Bernal) renamed Ángel, reuniting with his childhood friend, Enrique (Fele Martínez), who is now a filmmaker. Ángel has brought Enrique a script, and a seduction begins. But the lines blur. The film is one of Almodóvar’s queerest, and a pool sequence is full of palpable sexual tension. Bad Education also reworks scenes from Almodóvar’s earlier queer film, Law of Desire, which itself is terrific. This delicious, twisty thriller is arguably one of the director’s best.

Volver (2006)

Almodóvar reunited with Carmen Maura (after two decades and a feud) for this film, a female-centric melodrama, about mothers, sisters and daughters—and the secrets that they share as well as keep from each other. Volver features a fantastic performance from Penélope Cruz, who frequently does great work with Almodóvar. (See also Parallel Mothers) The story has Raimunda (Cruz) dealing with two deaths when her aunt, Irene (Maura), returns from the dead looking for forgiveness. Volver is, thankfully, mostly a serious, and never campy film, despite some comic moments. It also showcases Almodóvar’s vivid use of tomato red (his signature). The drama is about how the past catches up with these women (another key Almodóvar theme) but it is also about how these “returns” allow the characters to grow and transform.

The Skin I Live In (2011)

Almodóvar’s first “horror movie,” more ambitious than good, is full of references to other films, from Frankenstein and Vertigo to Eyes without a Face. It’s a negative case study in the Almodóvar canon. Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas), keeps Vera (Elena Anaya) prisoner in his isolated house. There are rapes played for comic effect, which is off-putting (a recurring theme in his films). Almodóvar punishes his characters—and viewers—by also having the women kidnapped, held hostage and abused. (The women are also insane, and suicidal.) Banderas exudes a cool, sinister calm as the mad-as-a-hatter doctor. (Banderas has played mentally unhinged Almodóvar characters in Law of Desire, Matador, and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!). The visual flourishes are striking, but this interesting failure is at one’s own risk; it is recommended for the curious or completists. 

Pain and Glory (2019)

The filmmaker’s “autofiction,” this magnificent drama garnered Antonio Banderas a justly deserved Best Actor prize at Cannes along with an Oscar nomination. The Spanish actor, and longtime Almodóvar collaborator, was never better than playing Salvador Mallo, a blocked filmmaker in this drama about reconciliation and forgiveness. (See a theme?) Flashbacks depict Salvador’s childhood with mother (Penélope Cruz) and his attraction to a swoon-inducing Eduardo (César Vincente) whom he helps tutor. The film toggles back and forth in time as Salvador reconnects with Alberto (Asier Etxenadia), an actor he had a falling out with, as well as his ex (Leonardo Sbaraglia), and his aging mother (Julieta Serrano, another Almodóvar veteran). How the pieces all come together is highly satisfying as well an incredibly moving.