381 Best Movies to Watch In Spanish (Page 13)

Modern day coming-of-age ennui isn’t a new subject at all, but there’s a charm to the way this was presented in Güeros. In his first film, Alonso Ruizpalacios beautifully shoots each scene in black and white, forming striking images of what the capital used to be and taking new approaches in depicting certain scenes (for example, that panic attack with the POV shot covered in feathers!). The cast also excellently portray this millennial emotion well, with their eyes glazed over as they try to seek moments of connection and grounding, as they try to make sense of it all. While some of the politics might fly under the radar to people outside the country, Güeros nevertheless serves as an interesting portrait of the time, as well as an interesting debut for one of Mexico’s avant-garde filmmakers.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Adrián Ladrón, Alonso Ruizpalacios, Bernardo Velasco, Ilse Salas, Laura Almela, Leonardo Ortizgris, Marcelo Tobar, Raúl Briones, Sebastián Aguirre, Sophie Alexander-Katz, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Yojath Okamoto

Director: Alonso Ruizpalacios

Rating: NR

Frida Kahlo is an iconic Mexican painter, not just because of her outstanding art, but also because of her outlook in life, despite her ill health and tragic accident. Because of this, she has been talked about in multiple books, movies, and exhibitions, but a new documentary has popped up, this time from her own words. Carla Gutierrez’s directorial debut is a revelation, voiced primarily in Frida’s native Spanish and paired with key archival footage, vivid animations of her paintings, and an excellent acoustic score plucked from classical guitar. Being a biographical documentary, fans of the artist would, of course, be familiar with her life events, but Gutierrez’s approach is still worth watching, mostly because it’s Frida’s own words driving the film.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Fernanda Echevarría del Rivero, Frida Kahlo

Director: Carla Gutierrez

Rating: R

Based on the documentary short she helmed with actor Taylor Russell, Savannah Leaf’s Earth Mama is an intimate, unabashedly political, and decisively non-judgmental look at one mother’s determined attempts to regain custody of her two children. Gia (Tia Nomore) is struggling to work enough hours at her part-time photo studio job to pay for the home she needs before she can be reunited with her kids — struggling because the state also requires her to attend classes on topics like addiction recovery, which are eating into her time. What’s more, Gia is also heavily pregnant, and her looming due date sets a clock ticking on her efforts to satisfy her caseworker and decide what’s best for her new baby. 

There’s a depressingly cyclical nature to all this heartbreak, as testified to by the real people who sometimes pierce the drama to share their own experiences of the system Gia is navigating. Their contributions — along with Nomore’s lived-in performance and Leaf’s assured touch — deepen the urgency and emotion of the movie, which is as much a commentary on the dehumanizing bureaucracy of the social care system as it is Gia’s own particular story.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Autumn Mirassou, Bokeem Woodbine, Ca'Ron Jaden Coleman, Doechii, Dominic Fike, Erika Alexander, Frank Scozzari, JF Davis, Keta Price, Olivia Luccardi, Sharon Duncan Brewster, Slim Yani

Director: Savanah Leaf

During Custody’s opening scene — a judge-mediated custody hearing between ex-spouses Miriam (Léa Drucker) and Antoine (Denis Ménochet) — the latter’s lawyer pleads with the judge to side with her client, arguing that, despite his reported history of violence and the reluctance of the couple’s 11-year-old son to live with him, “Nothing here is black and white.” Custody plays something of a poker face in its first few minutes, leaving us as reliant as the judge is on arguments like these, but outside of the mediation room, the film’s tight 93-minute runtime builds to a finish that will conclusively — and terrifyingly — prove that claim false.

The skill of Custody, however, is in the fact that we don’t need this definitive proof to form our judgment, because we can feel the silent threat of it in every preceding frame. Each of its naturalistic scenes, whether ostensibly quotidian or celebratory, is suffused with simmering dread and ticking tension; even when he’s absent, Antoine looms over the family’s life like a dark cloud. With such restrained mastery over a thriller-like tone, Custody reveals the family’s all-too-common reality as the horror it really is.

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Actor: Alain Alivon, Anne-Gaëlle Jourdain, Coralie Russier, Denis Ménochet, Florence Janas, Jean-Claude Leguay, Jean-Marie Winling, Jenny Bellay, Jérome Care-Aulanier, Julien Lucas, Léa Drucker, Martine Schambacher, Martine Vandeville, Mathilde Auneveux, Saadia Bentaïeb, Sophie Pincemaille, Thomas Gioria

Director: Xavier Legrand

It’s always refreshing to see people in esteemed positions let their guard down, not to mention smoke a vape or gossip feverishly, as we mere mortals do. But Conclave is more than just a candid look at what goes down in a process as elaborate as a papal election. It’s a portrait of man’s innate thirst for power. And since it has more to do with humanity than divinity, it’s also rightfully silly. Cardinals are scrambling for votes and fighting over politics. They can be peaceful and reasonable, but they can also be petty and spiteful, just like any person pressured to vote for their future (or just like any person, period). Conclave is far from perfect—its intentions are murky at times and the visuals, though beautiful, are oddly sparse—but it works because no one in the film, not even the protagonist, is infallible. It’s a welcome reminder of our limitations, regardless of faith.

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Balkissa Souley Maiga, Brian F. O'Byrne, Carlos Diehz, Garrick Hagon, Isabella Rossellini, Jacek Koman, John Lithgow, Joseph Mydell, Loris Loddi, Lucian Msamati, Madhav Sharma, Merab Ninidze, Ralph Fiennes, Roberto Citran, Romuald Kłos, Sergio Castellitto, Stanley Tucci, Thomas Loibl

Director: Edward Berger

Rating: PG

Renowned choreographer Benjamin Millepied brings an 1875 opera leaping into the 21st century with this modern retelling — through dance and drama — of Carmen. The plot is reimagined along the US border and recenters the titular character (Melissa Barrera), a newly orphaned refugee from Mexico making her way to her godmother (a fabulous Rossy de Palma) in LA. In places, Carmen recalls Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet: aided by Nicholas Britell’s operatic score, it embraces its grand origins to evoke a star-crossed sense of looming tragedy over the romance that blossoms when reluctant border patrol guard Aidan (Paul Mescal) saves Carmen’s life and flees with her to California. 

Where Carmen really soars is in its translation of drama into dance. It’s an inspired move, pairing this almost mythical story with such a primal medium — but, while the movie achieves visceral emotion that words would struggle to produce in its choreographed scenes, there’s something lacking in the moments where dialogue is crucial. The conversations never move as fluidly as the dancing bodies do, and the passion and the fury falter as a result. That being said, this is largely still a boldly inventive filmmaking experiment, one that spotlights the thrilling potency of pure movement as a storytelling medium.

Genre: Drama, Music

Actor: Benedict Hardie, Corey London, Elsa Pataky, Kaan Guldur, Kevin MacIsaac, Melissa Barrera, Morgan Smallbone, Nico Cortez, Nicole da Silva, Paul Mescal, Pip Edwards, Richard Brancatisano, Rossy de Palma, Tara Morice, The D.O.C., Zac Drayson

Director: Benjamin Millepied

With his long and extensive career, it can feel that Steven Spielberg can direct everything. The question is, can he direct a movie that depicted one of the most important freedom suits America has ever faced? Amistad, titled after the ship in the case, is his attempt, and while it does employ some tired tropes and it is a tad lengthy, it does a fair job of balancing the real history and the cinematic drama. Detractors have denounced this film as a white savior narrative due to the way the characters that go through the most growth are the white characters, but it’s Cinqué’s story that moves us through Djimon Hounsou’s performance and Spielberg's direction. Amistad is not perfect, but it at least ensures that Cinqué’s actual life would be remembered and learned from for much longer.

Genre: Drama, History, Mystery

Actor: Allan Rich, Anna Paquin, Anthony Hopkins, Arliss Howard, Austin Pendleton, Castulo Guerra, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel von Bargen, Darren E. Burrows, David Paymer, Denver Dowridge, Djimon Hounsou, Eric Bruno Borgman, Geno Silva, George Gerdes, Gerald R. Molen, Harry Groener, Hawthorne James, Jake Weber, Jeremy Northam, John H. Tobin, John Ortiz, Kevin J. O'Connor, León Singer, Matthew McConaughey, Michael Massee, Michael Riley, Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne, Paul Guilfoyle, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Pete Postlethwaite, Peter Firth, Ralph Brown, Razaaq Adoti, Roy Cooper, Rusty Schwimmer, Stellan Skarsgård, Tomas Milian, Victor Rivers, Willie Amakye, Xander Berkeley

Director: Steven Spielberg

Rating: R

A War (Krigen) is a Danish war drama that focuses on Commander Claus Pedersen (Pilou Asbæk) as he leads a company of soldiers in modern day Afghanistan, while his wife at home in Denmark struggles to care for their three children. During a mission to rescue a family from Taliban threat, Claus’ unit is overcome by enemy fire, forcing him to make a dramatic decision that has a complicated effect upon himself, his fellow soldiers, and his family back home. A War is a tense yet thoroughly involving drama that offers a profound example of moral ambiguity and the repercussions of warfare. The acting and direction are utterly superb across the board—another enthralling and superbly humanistic affair from Danish filmmaker Tobias Lindholm (A Hijacking).

Genre: Drama, War

Actor: Alex Høgh Andersen, Charlotte Munck, Dar Salim, Dulfi Al-Jabouri, Petrine Agger, Pilou Asbæk, Pilou Asbæk, Søren Malling, Søren Malling, Tuva Novotny

Director: Tobias Lindholm

Rating: R