Whatever the case, actresses like Penelope Cruz have their careers because of people like Almodovar. The Spanish beauty made a name for herself at home, then crossed the Atlantic and starred in one lackluster film after another, her thick accent often detracting people from her abilities as an actress. Back in her comfort zone and in the hands of a master of the written word, Cruz comes alive in Volver like you’ve never seen her before. She’s literally electrifying in her performance as Rainmunda, who we see in the opening scene is cleaning the grave of her mother who may (or may not have) died in a fire. Mom (Carmen Maura) appears later to Rainmunda’s sister Sole (Lola Duenas)—maybe a ghost, likely not—and is immediately put to work in her illegal salon as a Russian immigrant. She’s back for some unfinished business, and given her chronic need to hide from Rainmunda, we’re certain the business is with her.

Complicated enough for you? Almodovar uses outlandish plot devises and a soap style of storytelling to bring together his juicy female characters—we haven’t even touched on the adultery, incest, prostitution and rape that worm their way into the story, always heavy enough to make you think—never so much so a good laugh or two can’t move you right on through. Volver is a dramedy in every sense of the word—when it’s funny, it’s side splitting, and when it tugs on your heartstrings, it yanks. The cast is universally superb, but it’s Cruz, after years of trudging through middling material and an obvious language barrier, who proves acting is in her blood.

Almodovar has brought us brilliant films tht center around gay themes in the past (All About My Mother, Bad Education). There’s not an obviously gay character to be found here, yet the film drips with gay sentiment—likely because the women are so well crafted, we feel connected. It’s another shining peak in his already brilliant crown.

Even better than Volver is Pan’s Labyrinth... part fairy tale, part war drama, part character study… all of it for adults. While ads may make Hellboy director Guillermo Del Toro’s masterpiece look more Harry Potter than Labyrinth with some major adult themes, I can assure you this is not one you want to bring the kids too, and that’s part of the reasons it’s such a stunning piece of work.

Set in two parallel worlds—brutal 1944 Spain just after the triumph of Francisco Franco's fascism and an at times more disturbing alternate universe 10-year-old girl Ofelia stumbles upon behind an old mill—Del Toro is a master at creating images. This second world may be an escape from the almost intolerable reality of a world rattled by savagery, but Del Toro makes an interesting artistic choice by making it dour, mysterious… not so much a welcome escape as another choice.

His fantasy world is filled with a faun who makes that thing that ran around in Chronicles of Narnia look like an appetizer, a blob of a frog who can puke up its stomach lining, an eyeless, moaning creature that looks like it could swallow you whole without a second thought. It’s haunting, frightening, yet since the imaging is so profound, you don’t want to be anywhere else.

Del Toro’s thoughts on war, on abuse, on conformity come shining through, and yet he’s found a way to make a political statement through the subtlety of his imagination. His cast is universally wonderful and, as is rare in film of any language, Pan’s Labyrinth (which boasts a magnificent script) is so vivid, so well shot, you could watch it with no sound, no subtitles and still manage to be swept away.

Until next time!