Bitter Christmas — NYFF Review

While watching Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas, I found myself thinking that it’s an enjoyable, sufficiently entertaining movie, but it definitely ranks lower than the vast majority of the auteur’s filmography. The funny thing is, Almodóvar himself seems to be cognizant of this and addresses it through the film’s self-reflexive humor. It’s a film that’s meta on multiple levels, almost to a fault. Almodóvar uses its layers of filmmaking-within-filmmaking to examine his own creative process and legacy, resulting in a film that is fascinating to think about, albeit forgettable. Bitter Christmas feels simultaneously deeply personal yet detached from the qualities that have often made Almodóvar’s films so distinctive and memorable.