Popular reviews

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  Review by Max Oxley ★★★ 3

  Antonio Banderas has telepathy powers and it's barely even relevant to the story

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  Review by Lou (rhymes with wow!) ★★★★½ 9

  A wonderfully sumptuous tale of two extraordinary people (/psychopaths) finding each other in a world full of boring normies.

  I really love this twisted Spanish soap opera, courtesy of Pedro Almodóvar. It is full of campy wit, sleaze (the movie opens with a guy masturbating to the kill scenes from Jess Franco's Bloody Moon) and crazy shenanigans.

  While the movie is arguably about Assumpta Serna's and Nacho Martínez' coupling, it is just as much about all the kooky side-characters.

  My new favourite 80's Almodóvar.

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  Review by Lou (rhymes with wow!) ★★★★½

  Obsession, telepathic visions, sex and murder, Pedro Almodóvar's wacky, psychosexual soap opera remains just as delightful as the first time I saw it. Tonight I got to introduce it to Adrian and Jacob. I am glad they connected with it.

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  Review by Evan ★★★★

  When a movie starts on an opening credits sequence that features the central character masturbating to his favourite murder scenes from slasher movies, you know you’re in for an interesting night. ‘Lesser’ Almodóvar is still a cut above the rest, Matador being the case and point. Sexy, scary, and unrepentantly sinful all in one swing. Only in Spain.

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  Review by DNA cinephile🏳️‍🌈 ★★★★

  Matador. 1986. Directed by Pedro Almodovar.

  Matador is the perfect example of an early Almodovar film: bright colors, shot in Madrid, has psychosexual references, has a fashion show, Pedro Almodovar has a cameo, Chus Lampreave, Carmen Maura, Julieta Serrano, and Eusebio Poncela also star in this film. The major themes of the film are psychosexual. To be more specific sex and death are the themes. The big stars are Assumpta Serna, Antonio Banderas, and Nacho Martinez. Assumpta Serna is a lawyer who is obsessed with death especially with bullfights and bullfighters. Nacho Martinez is a bullfighter and Assumpta Serna is his biggest fan-girl. Antonio Banderas portrays a tortured psychic. Almodovar pulls these characters together in the most surprise ending I…

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  Review by KYK ★★★★

  red hot danger, even when the lipstick smears off (from vigorous making out, of course)

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  Review by Jerry ★★½ 8

  “Marriage is necessary, otherwise there wouldn’t be… wedding dresses.”

  Morbid machismo, psychosexual obsessions, jet-black humor, aesthetic splendor, Banderas being a bad boy and… telepathy? Yeah, Pedro was clearly still finding his footing here, ‘cause Matador is a bit of a mess, but it’s a hell of an entertaining one. This giallo-adjacent story starts with a bang, with its influences proudly displayed in an unforgettable opening which sets the tone for the death/sex perversities to come. Although the opening credits sequence provides the two most obvious gialli references (Blood and Black Lace and Bloody Moon) it was the method of murder used by one of the main characters via Black Belly of the Tarantula that I appreciated the most, along with the copious visual nods…

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  Review by Ben Empey ★★★½ 1

  the matador diego montes looked like jeremy irons and martin scorsese had a baby. much to consider

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  Review by dankwit

  surprisingly lynch/de palma/hitchcock/giallo adjacent. I'm hooked; more almodovar pls

  TCM u a real one for airing this uncut

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  Review by Lou (rhymes with wow!) ★★★★½ 5

  I have logged this like a bazzilion times already, but when it was my turn to pick a vault movie after watching The 4th Man, I knew I had to pick it, since they basically operate on the same wavelength.

  I adore Matador. It's my favourite '80s Almodóvar movie.

  Good times watching it with Michelle.

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  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★½

  Lust and death. It started with the emasculated bullfighter aroused while watching Bava and Franco sexy murders. Almodovar steals from the best, and it is worth pointing out that around 1986, Almodovar was certainly closer to Franco than Cannes. The idea of murder as sexual release so common in the horror genre is all over it, with a good extra dose of Latino machismo thrown over it. Indeed, Matador often operates as a catholic variation on death's climax that is so common in Japanese erotic films. Of course, this is a packed movie, and Almodovar spreads his desires so they can be repressed/expressed by a large group of characters, and the movie is often fascinating as to how it operates…

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  Review by theironcupcake ★★★★½ 14

  “You can’t hesitate at the moment of the kill. Bullfighting’s golden rule.”

  For Pedro Almodóvar’s 75th birthday, I could think of no more apt way to mark the occasion than with a return to Matador, a film that, along with Kika, the director has considered among his absolute worst. He’s right about Kika, but he’s much too harsh on the earlier feature, which is brimming with all the sex, violence and sexual violence - all constant challenges to the audience's willingness to engage - that has defined his work for his entire career. As the first of four Almodóvar films to be rated NC-17 (the others are Law of Desire, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! and Bad Education), in…