La piel que habito 2011

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: This feels almost like a parody of Almodovar, with its melodramatic tone and themes of gender, identity, sex and revenge. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: ... this is as visually and sonically gorgeous as anything Almodovar has ever done. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Were we born this way or made? Mr. Almodovar has his ideas, which he playfully explores with each labyrinthine turn. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: It's almost as if Almodovar wanted to reach out into a gory genre, but couldn't do so without wearing prissy gloves. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: It's the only Almodovar movie in which feeling, emotional or sexual, doesn't suffuse the imagery and hold the ramshackle melodrama together. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Every time you think you know what the movie is up to, it takes an astonishing new turn. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The story has so many twists and turns it's practically writhing, and I'm reluctant to reveal much of it; the movie's power depends on its shock value, and Almodovar does, indeed, know how to shock. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: A disturbing experiment in terror that calls to mind some of the all-time horror classics -- particularly Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face -- while boldly striking out on its own. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: If you took a Weekly World News cover story and tried to reverse-engineer a screenplay from the headline, it might look something like The Skin I Live In. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Thematically it works, even when it falls short dramatically. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: As beautifully shot as it is perversely scripted, and you're likely to love it or hate it but not feel indifferently. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: "The Skin I Live in'' is Almodovar reaching back to his sickest, kinkiest self, and it's nice to see him trying to luxuriate in sleaze again. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Almodovar delivers his usual satiny mise-en-scene, though in this case it tends to undermine the creepy material. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The film is an exercise in improbable contrasts. The more extreme the actions of the characters, the more contained and fastidious the director's technique. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Almodovar's creepy derangements take too long to come into focus; the first half of the movie, especially, is unnecessarily confusing. But it all achieves a loony unity by the end. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Pedro Almodovar wows with the meticulous visual design of his films, but sometimes his narrative architecture is every bit as dazzling. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: These are questions one is left with -- and that's not an entirely satisfying feeling. Yet it's hard not to be drawn into the story, and even more, into the gorgeous storytelling. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: There are few filmmakers -- David Lynch comes to mind, Woody Allen -- who have a completely unique way of imprinting a film. Nobody but Pedro Almodovar could have made The Skin I Live In. And that's high compliment. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Read more

William Goss, Film.com: Almodovar's direction carries with it an air of precision that mutes the often preposterous nature of the proceedings in a manner evocative of de Palma's playful streak (if less egregious). Read more

Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: Only someone as talented as Almodovar could have mixed such elements without blowing up an entire movie. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: If theory ultimately outstrips drama in this semi-serious inquest into identity, gender and love, the filmmaking is often thrilling. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: By the end of the movie, when all your questions have been answered, you're left with the exhilarating high of having been manipulated by a gifted artist in a diabolically dark mood. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The most spontaneous of all movie artists has succumbed to "art," and the results are a disaster. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It is guaranteed to make many audiences uncomfortable, if not outright enraged. It is, in other words, pure prime Almodovar. And it is a pleasure to have him back. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Almodovar makes some missteps in his icky melange of melodrama and mischief, but the end result is playfully devious. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Almodovar offers up a grisly Halloween trick-and-treat in his first full-out horror movie, an eye-popping and genuinely shocking gender-bending twist on Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo.'' Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Surreal but disappointingly drab, it's still not the best Almodovar in years. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: This film, by turns macabre, melodramatic, and gothic, makes the heart race and the skin crawl. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Though I usually take pleasure in Almodovar's sexy darkness, this film induces queasiness. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Anything for Halloween? I'd vouch for The Skin I Live In, a scary, sexy and terrifically twisted horror film from the artist known as Pedro Almodovar. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: It's less a film you'll fall in love with than a film you'll tell your friends they absolutely must see, and that should be enough to make it a hit around the world. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "The Skin I Live In" is like a David Cronenberg horror film as made by a director who doesn't fear the body but revels in it, who is too sensual and amoral by nature to find anything truly disgusting or foreign. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Though the story boils over with extreme acts of passion and vengeance, Almodovar's examination of these two damaged people's troubled coexistence remains a cold (if impressively executed) formalist exercise. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Time and again this mad masterwork has you thinking, "Oh, no, they wouldn't dare go there." And then it goes several steps further. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Few filmmakers are more assured or alluring, even when we fear we're following a monster. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: Though beautiful to look at and graced with moments of ticklish camp, The Skin I Live In is also sluggish, arbitrarily conceived and, especially in its sagging middle, unaccountably dull. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The revelation of a gruesome back story seems, often, to serve as much for laughs as for dramatic heft in what is one of Almodovar's lighter efforts. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: The Skin I Live In is only middling Pedro -- which is to say, better than 78% of other people's films. But it has gleaming surfaces hiding the darkest habits. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: 'The Skin I Live In' is rooted in pain and loss, which pulls the film's more melodramatic side into a more thoughtful, provocative place than its surface suggests. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The film has more twists than a bull's neck and mucho polish (Alberto Iglesias's jazzy score also enchants), but it's more freaky than frightful, a "B" picture by an "A" director. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: As coldly calculating and infuriating as it can be, the film and its production design are stunning. But characters' actions and motivations are beyond comprehension. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Despite its scalpel-like precision, pic falls short of its titular promise, never quite getting under the skin as it should. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: [An] ever-unfurling, ultimately infuriating web of a film. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It may take a day or two before you figure out whether you actually like it. You could spend the first 24 hours merely trying to figure out what it is you just saw. Read more