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Spanish master Pedro Almodóvar follows an array of stirring, surreal, and seat-pinning dramas with “I’m So Excited,” a high-flying sex romp that recalls the director’s earlier screwball comedies.
Set aboard a commercial aircraft bound for Mexico City, the film, populated by a motley crew of sinners and lost souls, is so hilarious you’ll need tissues for your tears.
The title is lifted from the Pointer Sisters’ tune of the same name, which, apart from being performed, showstopper-style, by the plane’s trio of gay flight attendants (Javier Cámara, Carlos Areces and Raúl Arévalo), serves to reinforce Almodóvar’s return to the days that shaped him. The 1980s weren’t only the years in which the director found his sexy, cheeky voice; in Spain, they also marked the heyday of the post-Francoist era, a time of lingering dread, but newfound release of inhibitions.
Such are the themes that Almodóvar is channeling here, along with potent bits of commentary on Spain’s modern-day woes. The airplane — on which the entire film is set, save one semi-misguided subplot on the ground — is eventually forced to fly in circles and wait for an available runway, thanks to some technical problems with the landing gear. As a result, the passengers, who are tellingly divided into business and economy classes, must find any way possible to divert their attention from potential doom.
Under Almodóvar’s control, this means plenty of fornication, drugs, mescaline-spiked cocktails, and ruminations on life that are as feather-light as they are politically-tinged. Though painfully funny and stupendously orchestrated (a zippy, packed-cockpit scene is worth the trip alone), “I’m So Excited” could just as easily be viewed as Almodóvar’s fizzy meditation on life itself, with individuals in a kind of circuitous limbo, and doing whatever they can to distract themselves from impending descent.
Breezily hovering like the vessel that carries its cast of hedonists, “I’m So Excited” is one of the year’s best comedies, but it’s not without weight. Come for the drinks, tunes and debauchery, but stay for the in-flight messages, which Almodóvar deftly sprinkles in.
I’m So Excited
R
Three-and-a-half reels out of four
Opens tomorrow at the Ritz East
Recommended Rental
Black Rock
R
Available Tuesday
Written by mumblecore figurehead Mark Duplass, and directed by his wife, Katie Aselton, the low-budget survival thriller “Black Rock” shifts violently from vacation flick to bloody battle-of-the-sexes, with three friends (Aselton, Lake Bell, and Kate Bosworth) squaring off against three ex-marines on a remote island. The movie has its deplorable elements, but the way it explores gender roles makes it an unexpected gem.
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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