@CheekyMonkey said:

I've just seen this... Seems to be more autobiographical than it actually is (the main character is a better looking version of the director, Pedro Almodovar... even as the same hairstyle and "look")...

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-11-14/pedro-almodovar-pain-and-glory-oscars

It's an ok movie. You'll like it if you're a big Almodovar fan, it's an average movie if you're not a dedicated fan of his. It's pretty gay and inward looking, which is expected given the subject material... It feels like a much smaller movie then his previous ones.

His earlier movies, Talk to Her (2002), Volver (2006) and Broken Embraces (2009) are all much better movies than this... Larger in scope, more genre elements, better crafted and far more cinematic and gripping... This one is not quite as neurotic as a Woody Allen movie, but it is inward looking...

You can tell this one was made by the same director, but it's a movie about a man like himself looking back at his childhood (mostly), a past romance and an important time in his career... It's nothing like those other movies...

I'm not a dedicated Almodovar fan and I thought it was pretty good.

Why would a director always have to make the same kind of films? I found The Skin I Live In to be fairly different to his usual stuff too. More of a horror/thriller slant to it.

I've just watched this and it is my favourite by Almodovar. He says it's not fully biographical, which if anything makes it more impressive to me. The performances (and characterisations) were all excellent and despite the somewhat banal material it was never less than thoroughly engaging. I'd have had no complaints had Banderas taken the Oscar.

Inward looking, realistic pieces can stimulate and entertain just as much as wild things like The Skin I Live In (which I found almost comical personally, perhaps failing to approach it as sci-fi).

8/10