Criticism

Cardullo, Bert. "Lovers and Other Strangers." The Hudson Review XLIII, No. 4 (Winter 1991): 645-46.

Asserts that Almodóvar's Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is "as facile and tedious as his other films to reach these shores."

Dyson, Jonathan. "Hypocrite Lecteur." The Times Literary Supplement, No. 4764 (22 July 1994): 18.

Complains that "despite several stunning set-pieces such as the rape, the basics of plot and characterization [of Kika] simply don't gel: storylines go unresolved or are unconvincingly resolved, longueurs abound."

Forbes, Jill. "Ivan the Terrible: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." Sight and Sound 58, No. 2 (Spring 1989): 135.

Observes the comedy and ambiguities present in Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

Fuentes, Victor. "Almodóvar's Postmodern Cinema: A Work in Progress …" In Post-Franco, Postmodern: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar, edited by Kathleen M. Vernon and Barbara Morris, pp. 155-70. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Discusses Almodóvar's contributions and limitations as a postmodern filmmaker.

Hart, Patricia. Review of Patty Diphusa y otros textos, by Pedro Almodóvar. World Literature Today 66, No. 3 (Summer 1992): 485.

Praises Almodóvar's Patty Diphusa y otros textos.

Morris, Barbara. "Almodóvar's Laws of Subjectivity and Desire." In Post-Franco, Postmodern: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar, edited by Kathleen M. Vernon and Barbara Morris, pp. 87-97. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Analyzes how "Almodóvar de/reconstructs heavily codified myths and institutions of Spanish culture—the nunnery, the working-class family and motherhood, the tragic love triangle, and the bullfight—revered in Francoism's exalted iconography."

Romney, Jonathan. "The Pain in Spain." The Observer (21 January 1996): 15.

Questions Almodóvar's sincerity in his Almodóvar on Almodóvar.

Smith, Paul Julian. "Pepi, Luci, Bom and Dark Habits: Lesbian Comedy, Lesbian Tragedy." In Post-Franco, Postmodern: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar, edited by Kathleen M. Vernon and Barbara Morris, pp. 25-39. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Contrasts Almodóvar's Pepi, Luci, Bom, calling it a lesbian comedy, with his Dark Habits, calling it a lesbian tragedy.

Vernon, Kathleen M. "Melodrama Against Itself: Pedro Almodóvar's What Have I Done to Deserve This?" In Post-Franco, Postmodern: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar, edited by Kathleen M. Vernon and Barbara Morris, pp. 59-71. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Discusses Almodóvar's What Have I Done to Deserve This? in terms of its relationship to American melodrama.

Vernon, Kathleen M. and Barbara Morris. "Introduction: Pedro Almodóvar, Postmodern Auteur." In Post-Franco, Postmodern: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar, edited by Kathleen M. Vernon and Barbara Morris, pp. 1-23. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Traces Almodóvar's films from a cultural and historical perspective.