Spanish movies offer some of the most intriguing concepts and stories and can be great if you’re looking for something new besides the mundane and repetitive Hollywood media.
While I haven’t watched many Spanish movies, my girlfriend, who lives in Mexico, has. We decided to watch movies together by hopping on a call and streaming them. I love watching movies at the highest quality, and video calls take up a lot of bandwidth. She suggested contacting Xfinity servicio al cliente and getting their internet service, which offers fast and reliable internet at an affordable price. We watched Y tu mamá también, La mala educación, Como agua para chocolate, Amores perros and Empieza el baile, and didn’t have a single problem with lag or buffering.
Out of more than 40 brilliant Spanish movies, here are my picks for five of the best you need to watch:
Amores Perros
Volver
Todo Sobre Mi Madre
El Laberinto Del Fauno
Abre Los Ojos
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Amores Perros
- Release Date: June 16, 2000
- Genre: Crime, Thriller
- Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
- Cast: Emilio Echevarría, Álvaro Guerrero, Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo, Vanessa Bauche, Adriana Barraza, Jorge Salinas
Amores Perros presents a storyline consisting of three unique stories, all linked through a car crash that brings the characters together for a brief period. I won’t spoil the movie too much, so here’s a short summary of the three stories.
The first story is about Octavio, who lives with his mother, brother, and brother’s wife. Their family is poor, so Octavio’s brother decides to rob stores to make money. Things go sideways when it’s revealed that Octavio is in love with his brother’s wife.
The second story is about Valeria, who is having an affair with a magazine editor named Daniel. He’s married and has two kids but decides to leave his family to live with Valeria. While the setup of this part of the story is already messed up, it gets even darker when Valeria gets into an accident.
The third story is about a skillful hitman, whose hit gets interrupted by the car crash that’s the central part of this movie.
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Volver
- Release Date: March 17, 2006
- Genre: Crime, Comedy
- Director: Pedro Almodóvar
- Cast: Penélope Cruz, Lola Dueñas, Carmen Maura, Yohana Cobo, Blanca Portillo, Chus Lampreave
Volver is a movie that features some dark topics like cancer, betrayal, death, and abandonment with a light-hearted script that makes the movie more consoling than dreary.
The story is about Raimunda, played by Penélope Cruz, who lives in Madrid with her husband and daughter. Sole, her sister played by Lola Dueñas, and Raimunda both miss their mother Irene, who died in a house fire years ago.
One of their former neighbors says that she saw their mother’s ghost. They both disregard her claims until their mother’s spirit appears and starts to comfort them after a family tragedy.
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Todo Sobre Mi Madre
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- Release Date: April 16, 1999
- Genre: Drama
- Director: Pedro Almodóvar
- Cast: Cecilia Roth, Candela Peña, Marisa Paredes, Antonia San Juan, Rosa Maria Sardà, Penélope Cruz, Fernando Guillén, Fernando Fernán Gómez
Todo Sobre Mi Madre is one of the best Spanish-language movies you can watch right now. Pedro Almodóvar is a master at film-making, and this movie features a lot of the dreams, fears, and aspirations you have, to create a movie that defines family values.
The movie is about Manuela, who loses her son due to an accident. She starts her journey to Barcelona to inform the son’s father about his death. Manuela soon discovers that the son’s father has now become a transvestite.
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El Laberinto Del Fauno
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- Release Date: October 11, 2006
- Genre: War, Fantasy
- Director: Guillermo del Toro
- Cast: Maribel Verdú, Sergi López, Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Doug Jones
More commonly known as Pan’s Labyrinth, this movie is a dark fairy tale that shows nightmarish dreamscapes about violence, corruption, and death. While the plot of the movie is simple, the writing is layered and filled with messages and metaphors.
The story is about a girl from Spain in 1944 who is fascinated with the concept of fairy-tales. At night, she encounters a fairy and is taken to the center of a labyrinth. She finds out that she’s a princess, but needs to prove herself by going through three tasks if she wants to be a real princess and meet her father.
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Abre Los Ojos
- Release Date: December 18, 1997
- Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller
- Director: Alejandro Amenábar
- Cast: Eduardo Noriega, Chete Lera, Penélope Cruz, Najwa Nimri, Fele Martínez
Adding a bit of sci-fi to the mix, this movie will have you guessing what’s going to happen till the end. This is one of the most melancholic and mesmerizing movies you’ll see in a while. It tackles topics like societal anxiety, depression, idealistic love, and facing life.
The movie is about César, a handsome man who falls in love with the woman of his dreams. His jealous ex-lover offers him a ride in her car to kill him. She takes several pills and crashes the car, which results in her death and leaves César disfigured.
He slips into depression as the woman leaves him to live with another guy. However, one day, everything seemingly goes back to how it was, as the woman is in love with him and César’s face is no longer disfigured. After this point, a weird series of events happens that you must explore by streaming the movie!
These were just my top five picks for some of the best Spanish movies I’ve seen in a while. If you have any more suggestions for me to watch, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
