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All About My Mother (1999)
1999 was a watershed year in cinema, yielding a magnificent lineup of hit releases that celebrated the art form’s century of progress. It also established the new millennium’s boldest new voices, including Sam Mendes, the Wachowskis and M. Night Shyamalan. The Tomorrow Theater celebrates this era with its Summer of ’99 series, a collection of retro favorites that includes Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s breakthrough melodrama, All About My Mother, on July 17.
Manuela (Cecelia Roth) is a single mother whose life falls apart when her teenage son, Esteban (Eloy Azorín), dies in a tragic accident. Grief-stricken Manuela returns to her hometown of Barcelona, where she connects with friends old and new while tracking down Esteban’s estranged father (Toni Cantó), a transgender sex worker.
Almodóvar crams a season’s worth of telenovela plotlines into the film as Manuela and her circle navigate love, addiction, AIDS, faith, death and new life—lovingly illustrated in Almodóvar’s garish color palette and affinity for old Hollywood. The depiction of queer characters is especially noteworthy; in a time when trans people were often derided or vilified in media, All About My Mother was revolutionary for its matter-of-fact honesty on subjects that brings an implicit empathy and hammers in Almodóvar’s central themes of female friendship and community.
All About My Mother netted Spain an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and introduced Almodóvar, who had made 13 movies prior to this, to a wider audience. Today it stands as a tragic, funny, gorgeous and uplifting tribute to mothers, actresses and women of all kinds. Tomorrow Theater, July 17.
Also Playing:
Cinema 21: Ran (1985), July 16. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991), July 18. In the Mood for Love (2000), July 18–20. Kung Fu Hustle (2005), July 19. The Asphalt Jungle (1950), July 19. Cinemagic: Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory/Premature Death (2025), July 16 and 17. Prince of Darkness (1987), July 18. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), July 19 and 20. Cult Classics: The Hunger (1983), July 20. Clinton: Quilombo (1984), July 16. Prospect (2018), July 17. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), July 18. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), July 19 and 20. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), July 19. www.RachelOrmont.com (2024), July 21. Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995), July 22. Hollywood: Blazing Saddles (1974), July 16. The Princess Bride (1987), July 17. Days of Heaven (1978), July 18. Matilda (1996), July 19 and 20. Maniac (1980), July 19. Vigilante (1982), July 19. Gunbuster (1988), July 20. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), July 21. The Bad News Bears (1976), July 22. Tomorrow: All About My Mother (1999), July 17. Year of the Fox (2023), July 18. Margaret (2011), July 19. Certain Women (2016), July 19. Never Been Kissed (1999), July 20. Heathers (1989), July 20.
