Pepi, Luci, Bom (1981)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Blistering performances.

While playing with her Superman's cards in her apartment, Pepi (Carmen Maura) is visited by her neighbor and dirty policeman, who saw her vases with a plantation of marijuana on the window, rapes her and she is not arrested. Pepi plots revenge and calls her punk friends, and they mistakenly beat the policeman's twin brother up along the night on the sidewalk of a street. Pepi introduces her punk singer friend Bom (Alaska) to the policeman's masochistic wife Lucinda (Luciana), and when Bom urinates on her face, she falls in love for Bom and leaves her husband. Pepi, Luci and Bom go to underground concerts, bars and parties, but when the policeman meets Luci alone, he beats her up and she returns to him, while Pepi and Bom stay together."Pepi, Luci, Bom y Otras Chicas del Montón" has not been released in Brazil and I saw this low budget movie in Spanish without subtitles, therefore I understood only parts of the dialogs. The first Almodóvar's feature is a calling card of his style: irreverent, twisted, bright, tacky, shabby, outrageous, hilarious, underground, a kind of Spanish version of John Waters. The women, as usual, have strong lead roles. The colors are very alive, and the costumes the most weird as possible. I hope to have a chance to see this movie with Portuguese or English subtitles to have more fun with a fully understanding of the details of the lines. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Not Available"

This is the power of filmaking. It proves that passion for an art can outstand the difficulties. It might be cheap (it looks cheap) but the redeeming value is the hilarity, the originality of the ideas, the true passion of a true artist.Director/writer Almodovar, in this first full length, presents us with his absurd unreal world. This is partly a relentless satire of S/M personalities, but intentionally unrealistic and much more. A world where lust is orgasmic and corruption of ethics and loss of dignity are ... funny! This is by no means for those who are offended easily. This is a movie which disregards ever good manner, every culture's rules. Almodovar humour is heretic. If you're up for something different, weird f##ked up humour, then come and join, welcome to Almodovar world. This is not quite recommended to "Talk to her" fans. But if you like early Almodovar, it is essential to search for this, to see how everything started.

All the energy put in Pepi... is enough to go and see it. That a young director show so much enthusiasm is a litmus test to see if he really loves his story, his actors... and the medium, cinema at large. Far from all those neurotic self-centered so-called authors who will only deal with their obsessions through intimate and intricate tales.Sure, Almodovar gives so much in the first half (i.e. till Luci leaves her home) that the following is not so surprising and exciting. But he learnt later to build up his stories mastering pace all along. As for then he steps out from underground flicks yet displaying great skills.He will be back.

When seeing this film you try to say: OK, Almodóvar is improving his films with time and this (his first one)could be the best of his earlier films. However, you begin to disappoint with the first dialogue (silly and absurd, no provocative), and it's better if we don't talk about the papers and acting (what happend to great Carmen Maura?!!).If you take the challenge and go on seeing the film, it's full of bad directing, worse cinematography and the worst story and dialogues I've ever heard and seen. In sum, it's rubish.