I'm So Excited

Pedro Almodovar's 2013 comedy "I'm So Excited" is playing in theaters (alas, not in Phoenix any longer). This is the second fantastic movie I've seen in theaters this year (the other was Shane Carruth's sci-fi romance "Upstream Color"). Insanely, but perhaps predictably, both had short-lived theatrical runs in the Phoenix-area. The film stars the great Javier Camara ("Talk to Her", "Bad Education"), the sexy Cecilia Roth ("All About My Mother"), and Lola Duenas ("Talk to Her", "Broken Embraces," "Volver"). The three main flight attendants are really great. One is played by Javier Camara. He's constantly drinking and completely unable to lie or keep his mouth shut. He's hilarious in that he's incapable of doing anything right and yet we feel all kinds of empathy for this, arguably, main character (compare his character in "Talk to Her"). The trio's musical interlude is one of the best moments of the film. However, as with all Almodovar films, the female characters take the cake for me. Cecilia Roth and, especially, Lola Duenas's characters are my favorite parts of this movie. Cecilia Roth plays a demanding escort who has seemingly had sex with many high officials and video taped all of it. She's a demanding character but whenever she's on the screen she also demands your eyes. Lola Duenas plays a psychic of sorts who becomes nauseous at the smell of past or future death and who really, really wants to lose her virginity. All of these characters and more are trapped in a plane circling above a city in Spain waiting for an airport to accept their emergency landing.

Almodovar is quoted as saying that the film harkens back to his 80s films, which were "light, very light comed[ies]", rather than the sort of dark, yet always colorful, melodramas (I'm convinced his are the only melodramas I enjoy) old and new Almodovar fans have grown accustomed to in more recent years (see chiefly, "All About My Mother" and "Talk to Her"). He's also hilariously been quoted as saying that the film is about being horny. That's an understatement. But the film is also a fantastic satire of how different microcosms of society respond to current states of the world. Did I mention all of the main characters are from business class and the economy class passengers and flight attendants have been put to sleep with a muscle relaxant?! Much more can be said toward the greatness of the film---I haven't even mentioned the fantastic cameos of Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas---but instead I'll stop here and strongly recommend finding a theater near you awesome enough to still have Almodovar's sex farce/satire playing.