I'm So Excited!

Sometimes you go into a movie simply wanting a little fun. After so many years of Pedro Almodovar making twisted psychodramas and searing romances, often to acclaim like Academy Award nominations/wins and film festivals across the world, we now have a total screwball comedy that is another 'bottle' comedy from summer last year (remember This is the End all staged in one place). It's a filmmaker not going for anything serious, anything too deep, anything that will be About The Human Condition (in caps). And if there is, that's icing on the cake. This is just about farce, in the lightest ways for this filmmaker now in his latter years.

Here you get to see what these characters do at the end of their self-involved ropes. There's a lot of energy and a lot of silliness with these characters, played by actors who are familiar players in this director's oeuvre, but the sketches click mostly. It's only when Almodovar leaves the plane for a scene where a character calls a woman and we see her story for a bit that it drags and loses its energy.

But those male flight attendants are hysterical, in timing and how they express everything as BIG and frantic as possible, and when the music number of the film's title hits it finally releases one of only thinking of the song as that scene from Saved by the Bell (or maybe it's just for me it did). Fast, loose, and knowing how goofy it is, its movie-making that hits the spot at the end of a long day and maybe with a little drink on the side (minus he mescaline).

I ignored the reviews for this flick which were mostly unfavourable figuring that Almodovar is not everybody's cup of tea. On this occasion alas I have to agree. I'm assuming this is meant to be an out and out comedy (there was a fair amount of laughter in the cinema) but to me the material was over reliant on cheap, sensationalist blowjob and gay sex gags a kind of x rated Carry On film with none of the charm and simply not funny enough.

I figure that Almodovar fans like myself will watch this regardless of the poor reviews, as for those Almodovar virgins who may be contemplating popping their cherry avoid this and check out the great man's back catalogue.

I'm So Excited is every frame a Pedro Almodóvar film (Talk to Her, Volver, The Skin I Live In): bizarre characters are painted in warm, luscious hues; politically incorrect dialogue are infused with a hint of cheerful irreverence. This saucy Spanish comedy revolves around three gay stewards, two bisexual pilots and a flurry of passengers bound for Mexico.

The main narrative occurs against the backdrop of the plane interior itself. When the landing gear of Peninsula Flight 2549 malfunctions, sexual tensions escalate and inhibitions are shed in tandem to the knowledge of impending death and doom.

We meet the trio of raging queens Joserra (Javier Cámara of Talk to Her), Fajas (Carlos Areces ) and Ulloa (Raúl Arévalo), chief pilot and Joserra's married lover Alex, his co-pilot and one-night-stand Benito. Seven passengers venture in-and-out of the cramped and narrow-spaced cockpit to interrupt this nervous dynamic. Hyper sensitive virgin psychic Bruna (Lola Dueñas) reacts to her powers of ESP and detects the "smell of death" in certain parts of the plane. Norma (Cecilia Roth), a demanding corporate highflyer in business class has mysterious connections to the oligarchs of Spanish society; she fears the malfunction is an assassination attempt to bury the secrets she knows as a high-end dominatrix. A mysterious and nameless Infante, scandalous middle-aged celebrity Ricardo, troubled husband and father Sr. Más and a pair of dopey, drug smuggling newly weds occupy the rest of Flight 2549's fuselage.

Attempts to communicate with family and loved ones ground below are made possible by the only cabin handset that functions — but conversations can be heard over the PA system. This narrative device connects passengers in the plane to various characters on the ground; thus giving shape to back stories that serve to stress and accentuate the panicky mood unfolding within the plane.

This latest offering by Almodóvar is an unbridled, satirical film with flashes of political and sexual humour. In many ways, I'm So Excited is a valuable testament to the hedonistic cultural wave of La Movida Madrileña (the famous Spanish 80s) where freedom of expression, transgression of taboos imposed by the Franco Regime, use of recreational drugs all exist to celebrate a new spirit of freedom in the streets of Madrid.

Far from existing in a farcical vacuum, it would be prudent to consider the historical undertones in this excellent film — it is a subtle reminder of how far the Spanish identity has since evolved in post-Franco years.

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"I'm So Excited!" from 2013 is not Almodovar's best effort - it's as raunchy as it gets, and it seems like it's on the light side for him. It really isn't, if you understand Spanish politics.

The plot concerns a flight from Madrid to Mexico with an economy class that's been drugged so they'll sleep through the flight and won't become restless, and a first class with just a few people in it. Those people consist of a dominatrix, a virgin psychic, a man escaping from bank fraud, an actor, a couple on their honeymoon, and a man who describes himself as being in the security business.

They are attended to by three gay male flight attendants who at one point lypsync and dance to "I'm So Excited." They also pass out Valenciana cocktails with mescalin in them.

It seems that the plane might not land - there's a problem with the landing gear and the pilot is frantically seeking an airport where he can make an emergency landing.

Someone described this as a gay Airplane! and I suppose in a way it is. Almodovar I think was saying that the economy class (i.e., the poor) are kept unaware of circumstances. The wealthy people in first class are awake and, if not in control, at least they know what's going on.

If you're not a fan of Almodovar, you will undoubtedly hate this. I liked it - I'm not one for raunchy, sexual humor -- but because I like Almodovar and his quirkiness, I put up with it. I have to say the guys' rendition of "I'm So Excited" was hilarious - I watched it a couple of times. Also, Miguel Angel Silvestre, one of my favorite actors, plays one of the honeymooners. Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz have cameos.

Almodovar isn't for everyone, but he's an intelligent director with an offbeat sense of humor. If you're unfamiliar with him, I recommend you start with "Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" or "All About My Mother," or the wonderful "Volver."

This movie is very funny, and yes, very light. Therefore, if you go to theater expecting another "Todo sobre mi madre", please be aware that you will be for sure highly disappointed - so maybe you should do something else. This is an "Airport" disaster movie, set in Almodovar's world and populated by his trademark characters. You can easily imagine the final outcome, don't you?

I found the result of this crossover wildly entertaining, and refreshing. But not silly: a couple of themes thrown in the story – the ones related to the supposed financial crimes of one of the characters - gave me the feeling that Almodovar is trying to say something even about the current situation of Spain and Europe (and the setting of the last scene, with all those empty interiors, that shameful waste of money, looks like a clear statement from the author about what should be actually called a "disaster" in nowadays world).

I am not Spanish: so maybe what I think about the relevance of Pedro Almodovar's work for Spanish culture could easily be wrong. Still, I am under the impression that you can hardly find in the whole world another artist that has so single-handedly influenced and changed the mindset of a country like this man has done for Spain in the last thirty years (and it's a long way, from "Marcelino pan y vino" to Agrado and his sisters). In my opinion, Spain has been made a better place, by the Almodovar revolution. God bless him.