Why I’m Eagerly Anticipating The Skin I Live In

I’m ridiculously giddy to see Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In, which is why I’m writing this rather pointless post about how excited I am. My giddiness can’t be contained!

Almodóvar’ is one of my favorite directors. Thanks to a college seminar on the director (without it I don’t think I would feel remotely comfortable assesing any of his films), I can usually find something to love in all of his movies. Except Live Flesh. No one likes Live Flesh.

But I may also be one of the rare filmgoers who doesn’t fervently love Almodóvar’s female-centric movies. I don’t love All About My Mother, Women on the Verge of the Nervous Breakdown, or even Volver. (Sorry Diana.) I just strongly like and admire them.

I prefer Almodóvar’s films when they are complicated, dark, mysterious, and so twisted they make my head spin. And especially when you can’t descibe them in a few choice adjectives. The Skin I Live In looks like just that. More than anything, the draw of The Skin I Live In for me is Antonio Banderas. The actor has reteamed with Almodóvar after 22 years. Sure, Banderas is a big Hollywood star these days (ironically Puss in Boots, the prequel to Shrek, is being released Oct. 28) but Banderas is always at his best with Almodóvar.

Basically, I’m pumped. I’m going to see The Skin I Live In with my friends from my Almodóvar seminar. We’re going to geek out and be hardcore Almodóvar snobs. It’s going to be great.

Oh, and Antonio Banderas appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live last week to promote The Skin I Live In. The interview is rather uneventful but Banderas gives us some tidbits about what to expect from this movie. And someone once told Pedro Almodóvar he wouldn’t make it as a director. Doesn’t it always happen that way?