Finale a sorpresa - Official Competition

The three stars of this movie are Penélope Cruz as famous director Lola Cuevas, Antonio Banderas as famous actor Félix Rivero, and Oscar Martínez as another famous actor Iván Torres. In a stroke of good planning the three actors also are the producers.

A wealthy businessman turning 80 wants to be remembered for something. Maybe build a bridge and name it for him? No, he finally decides to buy the rights to a novel and have a movie made. Lola will direct, Felix and Ivan will star as the brothers in a broken family relationship.

The two actor characters each have large egos, the title could be a reference to their competition with each other during rehearsals. But also near the end, when a news conference is being held, it is at an "official competition."

I will not say more about the contents of the movie, suffice to say it is brilliantly scripted and executed. Some small, seemingly insignificant, things we see during the middle of the movie return to be very important as the final scenes roll. A really entertaining and thinking person's movie.

It is in Spanish with English subtitles, which isn't my favorite way to watch a movie, but it was not difficult to both read and watch.

Good Almodovar Film.

Oh hang on its not one of his.

Could have fooled me.

I liked it. Pedro would be proud of his acolytes.

Good cinematography. The full face close ups are exactly like an Almodovar film

The mise en scene exactly like an Almodovar film.

The colour palette, the set design, the location choices, the humour, all exactly like an Almodovar film.

The casting...you know what.

All that being said, it's nice to watch an almost Almodovar film. Beats most other films made at the moment.

Come on, maybe the final joke of this film is the two directors are actually fictional characters, and really the director is Pedro Almodovar?

This movie criticizes movie actors and directors, but from a funny perspective where satire dominates the entire movie.

This story reflects in a funny way two different types of actors, although they seem caricatured, in reality they can have that personality, it also portrays how ridiculous and pretentious some directors can be, adding some exaggerated ways of directing the actors. The story also tells how to prepare the actors to make a movie, which is interesting and works as a starting point to create an unfriendly environment between the characters. The performances are spectacular, and the script doesn't ramble into unnecessary situations, although at the beginning it may be difficult to connect with the story, the rest of the time it is very enjoyable and funny.

It's a good movie that not only serves as a distraction, but also takes us a little deeper into the process it takes to make a movie, specifically the relationship between the actors and with their characters.

Opinion seems to be divided here about whether this is a comedy, possibly because the humour is pretty dark. Maybe some weren't laughing because they could see the jokes coming a mile off. But I still guffawed about half a dozen times, even if the portrayal of egotistical and vain actors was familiar and a little cliched. Possibly another reason some didn't laugh so much was on account of the robust, sometimes bracing humour which doesn't kow-tow to political correctness. Some laughed at the scene in which the elderly producer's daughter, cast to keep him on side and providing finance, is basically molested by each actor and finally ravished on the floor by Penelope Cruz, but I actually found it slightly shocking and unnecessary. There's also a lot of misogyny directed at Cruz by the warring male actors, although she does play several cruel tricks on them. So not 'light' but dark comedy, I would say. Great performances all round, I especially liked Oscar Martinez.

This movie is marketed as black comedy (it could be blacker for my taste) but it is basically a vehicle for great actors to overact, making fun of their profession but also show facets of their craft (there are many ways to say "Good Day"). On the other hand the movie draws attention to some facets of filmmaking that is usually neglectet, e. G. the importance of how sound is recorded.

We've seen many films about filmmaking and art, and this is definitely not one of the worst of its kind.