Bitter Christmas review: Pedro Almodóvar returns with a cerebral, semi-autobiographical drama

Storied Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar has built his career on melodramas rich in sex and agony.

However, in 2019, he got more personal with Pain and Glory, a semi-autobiographical drama in which Antonio Banderas plays a thinly veiled version of the director as he looks back on his work and life, anxious to move forward with a new project.

His latest, Bitter Christmas , serves as a sister film, echoing not only the semi-autobiographical element but also by casting a dashing actor in the role of an aging Almodóvar.

SEE ALSO: TIFF 2026 preview: 18 films (and shows) you'll want to see (and how) Leonardo Sbaraglia stars as Raúl, a filmmaker who's hungry for inspiration for a new screenplay.

In his corner are his much younger partner, Santi (Quim Gutiérrez), and his longtime manager, Mónica (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón).

However, Bitter Christmas gets self-reflexive as Raúl's story is interwoven with that in his screenplay.

There, a once-revered art-house filmmaker named Elsa (Bárbara Lennie) seeks to move away from directing commercials and return to screenwriting.

Aside from their similar creative quest, both also have May-December romances with younger men, and both find inspiration for their new project in the tragedy that befalls a friend.

In two layers, Almodóvar explores what it means to be an artist who may well cannibalize the stories of his loved ones for his art.

But he doesn't lose sight of what it means to see your heartache treated as fertilizer to grow that art.

In both Raúl's story and Elsa's, the writers are confronted by a female friend is radiantly furious at having her life treated as source material without consent.

So, how do these parallel stories play out? Bitter Christmas is compelling and frustrating.

Almodóvar, who wrote and directs Bitter Christmas, leaps back and forth between Raúl and Elsa, whose arcs play out in 2025 and 2004, respectively.

Despite the decades between them, these worlds are visually similar, alive with the vivid color palettes that are part of Almodóvar's signature style.