Matt Damon is only interesting when he's breaking the face of some Russian dude in shakey-cam-vision. That's what he should be doing. Not being married to Amanda Peet (I mean, WTF!!!)

Oh definately. As a whole I'd say the independent community has more misses because there is, arguably more talent, but less directed talent. Thankfully most of these films go unnoticed by even us film snobs and indie buffs. I've seen some bad indies in the past...

Hey now...I like Amanda Peet...sometimes.

I guess the woman with cancer is the most "quirky" of them all. But like dolce said, this is a different film from Bad Education (which I also loved btw). The movie itself is apparently lighter, but just apparently. The more I think about it, the more I want to see it again. Great sign.


And once again, he got me. I still need to see his earlier films though, but I doubt I'll hate any of them...


I think I loved All About My Mother and Talk to her more, but this one is so asking for another viewing(s).

It was awesome.



Roo, get out and see this. Definitely a 180 from BE - Cruz (and the rest of the ensemble) does a fantastic job, creating characters you can really care for. Despite the dark material (light for Almodovar, it seems) it's almost always upbeat, though there are some nice, dramatic moments scattered throughout - very successful because of Iglesias' score - that actually make it suspenseful. Oh, this was a real winner and a charmer. One of the year's best for sure. As with almost every Almodovar film, it's pretty sweet and definitely worth checking out.

Oh snap, I actually get to see this in theatres... Thursday. Every once in a while my theatre brings in one night only 'film-club' choices, 90% of the time they're obscure canadian documentaries or something... Yay.

you'll like this. i hope.

is this your first experience with pedro?



a virgin.

i was tainted by bad education, so consider yourself lucky.

Yeah, first Pedro.

I do want to see Talk to Her though.

I hope you like this. I'll be molesting you over his stuff from here on out.

That sounded off, probably. But it's true. :-O

Anyway, hope you like it. Talk to Her is wonderful, better.

I loved it.

Raimuna singing that song, and the burial of Paco sequence, would probably be two of my very favorite scenes of the year... was amazed in those parts. Whole film intrigued me in lots, it's very emotionally connecting... Penelope is magnificent, Pedro is magnificent, great supporting characters, beautiful score(why hasn't it gotten more attention?), beautiful cinematography. My only complaint was the entire affairs/who abused and slept with you web that is brought out in the exposition at the end. Felt a bit stretched.

Satisfied my expectations completley, and now I must get to more Pedro.

Yeah, this is easily the best film of the year.

Yeah. I think Half Nelson is my favorite so far this year, but Volver is great stuff.

It's like the perfect combination of Almodovar, yet it still comes across as light and accessible:

bright red and pastel colors - check
women, women, and more women - check
good-natured comedy and some dark humor - check
dilemmas of several characters - check
family and friend relationships - check
mystery - check
bizarre scenes - check
warm ending that makes it seem like all the bizarre stuff didn't happen - check

The only signature Almodovar style it lacks is commentary on those sensitive "sin" subjects (homosexuality, prostitution, drugs, SEX especially).

But this is an excellent place to start, Shack.

Would it be spoiling to ask what the significance of the title is?

I really hope to see it tomorrow, but its been on my mind a lot lately...keep in mind, I haven't read too much on the film and only saw the trailer once, so if it's incredibly obvious, forgive me.

She sings a song called Volver... which judging by the subtitles during it, is a translation for Coming Back. The story largely revolves around the mother 'coming back', with her whole ghost thing, wanting to be forgiven.

edit - Actually just looked it up and direct translation of Volver is 'to return'... same reason.

Yeah, Shack neatly sums it up. The central theme in the story is the returning of people and ways, if that makes sense?

Volver was definitely tame, hehe.... but still wonderful. I think I placed it at 3 or 4 for the year.

Yeah, I knew what volver meant, I just had very little idea what the movie was actually about. Could be only having watched the trailer that one time, but I was clueless about the whole 'ghosts' stuff...I thought it was just a dramedy about a bunch of females dealing with life and death.

I'm glad I've basically caught up with all 2006 films I am interested in (except the Science of Sleep, and maybe a couple others.) I say that because the number of 2006 movies I love is getting ridiculously long...if one more movie changes up my top ten, I might have to rate everything on a half scale (thereby fitting 20 into the space of ten.)

Volver was fantastic. A touching, sexy romp that had me seriously thrilled most of the way through. The whole thing is just incredibly charming. And very well made - Almodovar sure does know how to frame a shot.

The ending/surprise was kinda obvious early on, which probably affected its impact some, but other than that Volver is a serious joy to watch.

My #2 of 2006 (second to Pan's).
Great year for foreign films, and they're slowly trickling into the mainstream.

I disliked it, just like I disliked Bad Education and All About My Mother.

I won't bother with Almodovar's films anymore.

You're dead to me.