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*****QUEER THURSDAYS ON A FRIDAY*****When a celebrated filmmaker makes their first film in English, people are quick to judge whether or not their style translates. Many will observe the heavy-handed script and decide it does not. This is a mistake. Almodóvar’s dialogue has always been stylized — American audiences are just quicker to accept this when a film is foreign. In fact, Almodóvar is in total control here both in moments that are grounded and moments that exaggerate for melodrama or comedy.
The film is explicitly in support of euthanasia. It’s also explicitly anti-cop, anti-fascist, and anti-neo liberal. This is a film about a dying woman — it’s also a film about a dying world. How should someone spend their final days? How should the human race? What does hope look like when it’s not just a tool to evade the realities of mortality?
Like the writing, the formal style is also undoubtedly Almodóvar. New York has never looked like this. His signature colors and attention to design are on full display. And yet it doesn’t feel like a pastiche of old work. He seems inspired by this new setting, managing to mix the old with the new to achieve a stunning craft that’s both personal and fresh.
By leaving his home country of Spain, Almodóvar has not just made a movie with famous English-speaking actors. He’s also challenged himself to expand beyond the world he knows. If Pain and Glory was a reckoning with self and Parallel Mothers a reckoning with Spain, The Room Next Door is a reckoning with the entire world.
There is so much suffering endured and witnessed by us all. But there’s also the sound of birds singing, passages of literature that remain like memories, late night movies with friends, and, of course, fucking. Almodóvar isn’t ready to give up on the world quite yet. For a movie about death, his latest is full of life.
(AUTOSTRADDLE, Drew Burnett Gregory)
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Hypnos Theatre, Norra Grängesbergsgatan 15, SE-214 50 Malmö, Sverige,Malmö, Sweden
