By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Antonio Banderas | Antonio de la Torre | Carlos Areces | Cecilia Roth | Hugo Silva | Javier Cámara | Lola Dueñas | Paz Vega | Penélope Cruz | Raul Arevalo
Original language title: Los Amantes Pasajeros
Country: spain
Year: 2013
Running time: 90
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2243389/combined
Thom says: “Most ‘movie’ folks have been assiduous followers of the Spanish master Almodóvar since early in his career and I count myself among them although, honestly, I’ve rarely considered the possibility of him going to the TIP-TOP, mainly due to his erratic output. Never really making a bad film often he’ll direct a film that is not quite worthy of his vast talent. This outrageous farce has so much going on that it’s a riot to watch but it’s rather inconsequential. Light as air and incredibly far-fetched it sometimes seems lost in the clouds, which is a pretty fair description of the plot as well. A technical failure has stranded Peninsula Flight 2459 as they circle the skies trying to find a place to land. The three male flight attendants, all of who are gay (not that much of a stretch, I suppose) have medicated all of the flight’s non first-class passengers as well as the three lady flight attendants so they’re all out-like-a-light.
“The two pilots are both bi-sexual, the captain having an intense affair with the flighty, alcoholic flight steward. The passengers that are awake are a definitely rococo mix of people and their reactions to the proceedings are priceless. Forget that rule about not entering the cockpit as the enclosed area is swarming with passengers and attendants from time-to-time. Amid the wacky wanderings the flight attendants decide to mix a concoction that will make the awake passengers high-as-a-kite. The short film passes effortlessly in a hilarious uproar heading towards a baroque ending that could only have come from Almodóvar. 4.5 cats”
Chris says: “Not Almodovar’s most profound film by any means, and I can hardly imagine it becoming anyone’s favorite Almodovar—unless, perhaps, it’s their first (despite the in-joke cameos), for it plays like a compendium of all the director’s stylistic traits. Almodovar’s equivalent of AIRPLANE! is zippy, loopy, raunchy, impeccably designed, unquestionably absurd and packed with delirious (but knowing) melodrama and surprise narrative turns. Whereas some of his late-period work appears a little colorless in courting a sort of maturity, here he’s unapologetically camp (the film’s titular lip-synch extravaganza) and brash (a persistent, devil-may-care attitude towards drugs, drink and sex). As fluffy as the safety foam that cushions the final scene, you sense this was meant as nothing more than a trifle. Although Almodovar’s capable of far sturdier stuff, it’s reassuring to see him do something like this, if only purely for the fun of it. 4 cats”