Pedro Almodóvar’s Typical Vibe
Signature vibe

Highest-ranked title
Highest-ranked title
Pedro Almodóvar has 25 titles in the CriticCrunch catalog across a career spanning the 1980s through the 2020s. 5 rank in the Top 10%, led by All About My Mother.
Recurring themes

Following the tragic death of her teenage son, Manuela travels from Madrid to Barcelona in an attempt to contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. She reunites with an old friend, an outspoken transgender sex worker, and befriends a troubled actress and a pregnant, HIV-positive nun.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Candela Peña

Three generations of women deal with family secrets while surviving the east wind, fire, insanity, superstition, lies and even death.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas

After being dumped by her lover, Pepa finds her life and the lives of those around her spiraling out of control in a deliciously chaotic series of events.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano

A brilliant plastic surgeon creates a synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes

Two men share an odd friendship while they care for two women who are both in deep comas.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling

Salvador Mallo, a filmmaker in the twilight of his career, remembers his life: his mother, his lovers, the actors he worked with. The sixties in a small village in Valencia, the eighties in Madrid, the present, when he feels an immeasurable emptiness, facing his mortality, the incapability of continuing filming, the impossibility of separating creation from his own life. The need of narrating his past can be his salvation.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Antonio Banderas, Asier Etxeandia, Leonardo Sbaraglia

When an old friend brings filmmaker Enrique Goded a semi-autobiographical script chronicling their adolescence, Enrique is forced to relive his youth spent at a Catholic boarding school. Weaving through past and present, the script follows a transvestite performer who reconnects with a grade school sweetheart. Spurred on by this chance encounter, the character reflects on her childhood sexual victimization and the trauma of closeting her sexual orientation.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Gael García Bernal, Fele Martínez, Daniel Giménez Cacho

A henpecked housewife ekes out a meager existence, surrounded by a host of colorful characters: her ungrateful husband, her delinquent sons, her headstrong mother-in-law, and her sex worker neighbor, among others.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Carmen Maura, Luis Hostalot, Ryo Hiruma

Harry Caine, a blind writer, reaches this moment in time when he has to heal his wounds from 14 years back. He was then still known by his real name, Mateo Blanco, and directing his last movie.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo

After being released from a mental hospital, a troubled young man tracks down an actress he once had sex with and forces her into captivity, determined to make her part of his life.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Victoria Abril, Antonio Banderas, Loles León

Pablo, a successful film director, disappointed in his relationship with his young lover, Juan, concentrates in a new project, a monologue starring his transgender sister, Tina. Antonio, an uptight young man, falls possessively in love with the director and in his passion would stop at nothing to obtain the object of his desire.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Eusebio Poncela, Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas

The film spans 30 years in Julieta’s life from a nostalgic 1985 where everything seems hopeful, to 2015 where her life appears to be beyond repair and she is on the verge of madness.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Emma Suárez, Adriana Ugarte, Daniel Grao

When Victor attempts to seduce Elena, all he gets for his trouble is a one-way, six-year ticket to prison, where he concentrates on strengthening his mind, his body... and his desire for vengeance on the man who put him there. After his release and still madly in love with her, Victor will stop at nothing to win her over even if means revenge, for Elena has married David, the cop who sent him to prison!
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Javier Bardem, Francesca Neri, Liberto Rabal

After being estranged for 15 years, flamboyant actress Becky del Paramo re-enters her daughter Rebeca's life when she comes to perform a concert. Rebeca, she finds, is now married to one of Becky's ex-lovers, Manuel. The mother and daughter begin making up for lost time, when suddenly, a murder occurs...
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Victoria Abril, Marisa Paredes, Miguel Bosé

After her drug pusher boyfriend overdoses on heroin, a cabaret singer finds refuge from the authorities in a convent for fallen women.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Cristina Sánchez Pascual, Will More, Laura Cepeda

When American author Nicholas brings in a cosmetologist named Kika to prepare the corpse of his recently deceased son, she inadvertently revives the young man, then falls in love with him. Forces conspire against the couple, though, as Nicholas wants Kika for himself.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Verónica Forqué, Victoria Abril, Peter Coyote

Two unmarried women who have become pregnant by accident and are about to give birth meet in a hospital room: Janis, in her late-thirties, unrepentant and happy; Ana, a teenager, remorseful and frightened.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Penélope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde

Middle-aged romance author Leo writes under a pseudonym, since she despises her own work. At home, her husband, who works overseas, is distant both physically and emotionally. As she reevaluates her life and writing, Leo is led to an unexpected relationship with Ángel, a sensitive newspaper editor.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Marisa Paredes, Juan Echanove, Carme Elias
After a young heiress is assaulted by a policeman, she seeks revenge by befriending the policeman’s mousy wife and introducing her to her circle of outrageous punk friends.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Carmen Maura, Eva Siva, Alaska

Ingrid and Martha were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid went on to become an autofiction novelist while Martha became a war reporter, and they were separated by the circumstances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, John Turturro

A conflicted youth confesses to crimes he didn't commit while a man and woman aroused by death become obsessed with each other.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Assumpta Serna, Antonio Banderas, Nacho Martínez
A woman watches time pass beside the suitcases of her ex-lover (who is supposed to come pick them up but never arrives) and a restless dog who doesn't understand that his master has abandoned him.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Tilda Swinton, Agustín Almodóvar, Miguel Almodóvar
An array of outrageous people, including a desperate nymphomaniac and a terrorist with an acute sense of smell, seek love and happiness in Madrid.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Cecilia Roth, Imanol Arias, Helga Liné
After 25 years, a former hired gun visits his old colleague, now a small-town sheriff. Their past relationship is explored, as is how they reflect on it in the present.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Ethan Hawke, Pedro Pascal, Jason Fernández
Something has gone wrong with the landing gear of a plane en route from Madrid to Mexico City. The group of eccentric travelers on the flight, defenseless in the face of danger, indulge in colourful confessionals, while the outlandish crew attempts to find ways to entertain them.
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar · With Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz, Coté Soler