SnoopyStyle
Diego Montez is a former bullfighter obsessed with videos of violence. Ángel (Antonio Banderas) is one of his students and vows to prove that he's no fag. He tries to rape his neighbor and Diego's girlfriend Eva Soler. With his religious mother's prodding, Ángel confesses the rape to the priest and then to the police. Eva refuses to press charges and then Ángel confesses to murders. He leads the police to the bodies buried near Diego's home. They don't believe him with his fear of blood and an apparent alibi for one of the murders. María Cardenal takes the case as his defense attorney although she is the one who is seen doing one of the killings earlier in the movie. It's a tale of perverse sexual obsessions and murders.The story telling can be confusing with this Pedro Almodóvar film from his earlier days. It's a young fresh-faced Antonio Banderas and he's quite magnetic. It would have been great to have Banderas as the only main lead and dive into his confused maddening mind. Almodóvar is doing some sexually twisted things. It's pushing the edges of the envelop. It simply needs to be clearer and the more Banderas the better.
Brandon Abel
"Matador" is one of the most interesting and unique of Almodovar 's films, which is saying a lot considering this is Pedro we are talking about! The majority of the characters engage in untoward sexual behavior. Death is an obsession and killing is an aphrodisiac even if it means the end of your own life. The characters are deeply flawed but their horrendous actions are treated as being almost commonplace. I was conflicted while watching the film, because the main characters are monsters, but the actors make the characters so real that one understands what drives their evil tendencies. It is interesting how Angel appears to be the only character who feels any remorse for his attempted rape. Maria and Diego appear completely self serving without any guilt. Even Eva is willing to not tell the police on Diego if he will stay with her. These characters are monsters. But they are complex and wholly intriguing. We may not encounter these types of people, but we know they are out there, which keeps us wanting to know what they will do and how they can live with themselves after they have murdered, attempted rape, or are willing to ignore disgusting crimes for love.Although not as vibrant in color as Almodovar's more recent films, "Matador" still makes use of his love of red. In one particular scene, Eva runs down the stairs in pursuit of Maria, which creates a gorgeous image and is what we expect from Pedro. His camp sensibility is also apparent in the film as he mixes surprising comedy with drama. One example is when the detective says what have you done and Angel's psychologist, Julia, says straight faced, "I curled it" while pointing at her hair. Hilarious!Almodovar created a film that would have never been allowed under Franco's rule. You will be sitting there shocked but fully engrossed in this bizarre story.
lastliberal
I am not sure what to expect when the opening scene is a man masturbating to torture porn, a term that was probably not even invented in 1988.From there we go to alternating clips of Antonio Banderas asking the ex-bullfighter Nacho Martínez about women and he compares getting a woman to bullfighting, while we watch someone do exactly that. We are no, of course, prepared for the necrophilia twist in that encounter.We find our boy, Antonio, and he is a boy in this film, in a strict Catholic household. I would have to guess that his mother was Opus Dei. He attempts to rape his neighbor and confesses to four murders which we know he did not do. This is just Almodóvar's take on religion and repression. He revisits that subjects again in the film, so it must me a theme for him.But, then the story shifts to Nacho and Assumpta Serna, with Eva Cobo in a minor role. This is where the story gets interesting with the police trying to solve the four murders and the real murderers trying to lay it on Antonio.It gets bizarre at the end with Antonio seeing the killers in his mind and leading the police to them. But, they arrive too late as the climax of sex and death occurs simultaneous with an eclipse. How weird is that?
KGB-Greece-Patras
This 5th feature of Almodovar is one of his best (along with Labyrinth of passion & Kika) as far as I am concerned, and if not his best then for sure his most provocative flms. As usual, Almodovar explores some of the darkest sides of human sexuality, and deals with perversity as dealing with any every-day life subject. For once more, the notorious film-maker, at great shape, entertains with his trademark raving, hilarious, politically incorrect dialogs, pace and style and while dealing with dark (necrophilia) or serious (religious oppression) subject matters, it manages to be very funny and entertaining. What's great with Almodovar is that you simply CANNOT label his films. Is it comedy? nope. Is a thriller? nope. Is it a crime film? nope. This is Almodovar, so all pretenders go see another million dollar US product . But to all the admirers of unique and original films, this is definitely recommended, if you can tolerate with some weird humour, a bit sexy visuals and nudity and some violence. Matador is ART!
AD
