She's everywhere these days. Parallel Mothers is buzzy amid awards season, while The 355 has just been released to the masses. On top of that, Official Competition currently holds a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. What's the common denominator? Or rather: who?
Known outside her native country as the "Spanish enchantress," Penélope Cruz was a performer from the get-go. After studying classical ballet in Spain, she found her true calling when she won a modeling agency competition. The resulting contract landed her several roles in Spanish TV shows and music videos, which in turn paved the way for a career on the big screen.
Cruz made her movie debut in The Greek Labyrinth (1993) and then appeared briefly in the Timothy Dalton thriller Framed (1992). She ultimately achieved international recognition for her lead roles in the early-2000s films Vanilla Sky, All the Pretty Horses, Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Blow. Since then, she has starred in countless critically acclaimed films and received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award, four Golden Globe Awards and five Screen Actors Guild Awards. As we watch her grace the screen in three brand-new, buzzworthy films, let's look at Cruz's best five movies overall.
5 Volver (2006)
To appreciate Cruz's finest work means to also appreciate the filmography of acclaimed writer-director Pedro Almodóvar. He currently has a mind-blowing exhibit on display at the new Academy Museum in Hollywood, and his upcoming English-language feature just signed Cate Blanchett to star. Volver is just one of the many Cruz-Almodóvar collaborations, with its unique story following a mother who returns to her home town in order to fix the situations she couldn't resolve during her life. After all, "volver" in Spanish means "to go back."
"What I love about Pedro is that he gives you a character to play before you ever played such a character," said Cruz to MovieWeb back in 2006. "He does it with all his actors. He's done it with me the three times that I've worked with him. He's done great things for my career by having the faith to place responsibility in my hands with those difficult characters. I love the fear that I felt on the set of this movie, the terror of knowing the responsibility I had and how it was going to be a challenge every minute of every day."
Revolving around an eccentric family of women from a wind-swept region south of Madrid, Cruz stars as Raimunda, a working-class woman forced to go to great lengths to protect her 14-year-old daughter Paula. To top off the family crisis, her mother Irene returns from the dead to tie up loose ends. Cruz was deservedly nominated for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the first Spanish woman ever to be nominated in the category.
4 Belle Epoque (1992)
Echoing plot elements from Clint Eastwood's 1971 film The Beguiled (which was later remade by Sofia Coppola), Belle Epoque takes place in 1931, when a young soldier deserts from the army and falls into a country farm. He is welcomed by the owner due to his political ideas. The owner has four daughters (one of whom is played by Cruz). Fernando likes all of them, and they like him, so he has to decide which one to love.
"Belle Époque" translates to "the beautiful era," referring to the days before the Spanish Civil War. This acclaimed feature from director Fernando Trueba was deservedly named Best Foreign Language Film at the 66th Academy Awards. "'Belle Epoque' celebrates sensuality and the human body," wrote Roger Ebert in his rave review of the film at the time. "It is a reminder that sex can be kind and gentle, tender and beautiful. American films link 'sex and violence' so compulsively that we can hardly imagine an attractive woman who isn't hiding an icepick behind her back."
3 Pain and Glory (2019)
Here's another Almodóvar treasure to make our list. This meta offering follows a film director reflecting on the choices he's made in life, as the past and present come crashing down around him. The protagonist, played exquisitely by Antonio Banderas, involuntarily looks back into the past, and a stream of vivid memories falls upon him. He recalls such moments from his youth as tender feelings for his mother (played by a dynamite Cruz), love and separation, the search for happiness, and success.
The film was released in Spain in 2019 to positive reviews. At the 92nd Academy Awards, Pain and Glory was nominated for Best International Feature Film, and Banderas was also nominated for Best Actor. Time magazine chose the film as the best movie of 2019.
2 All About My Mother (1999)
Would it be a surprise to know that Cruz's last two films on our list are also products of Almodóvar? All About My Mother starts on a young man named Esteban who wants to become a writer — and also to discover the identity of his second mother, a trans woman, carefully concealed by his mother Manuela. From there, the story has many twists and turns that we shouldn't spoil here, for those who haven't seen this layered story on screen. It's full of awards-caliber performances, from Cecilia Roth playing Esteban's loving mom Manuela to Cruz later appearing as Sister Rosa, who befriends Manuela along her journey as the film's true protagonist. There's also Antonia San Juan as a scene-staeling transvestite prostitute who enters Manuela's life through a chance occurrence. And finally, Marisa Paredes plays an iconic actress, who is adored by young Esteban and also enters Manuela's journey by chance.
It will make sense in the end, and All About My Mother just can't be missed. You'll laugh, cry and cheer for the heroes on screen, as the film deals with complex issues such as AIDS, queerness, faith and existentialism. No surprise that it scooped up the Oscar and Golden Globe that year for Best Foreign Language Film, along with numerous other honors.
1 Parallel Mothers (2021)
Parallel Mothers is in theaters now, this latest Almodóvar-Cruz collaboration centering on two mothers who give birth the same day. They coincide in a hospital room, finding similarities in that they're both single and became pregnant by accident. One is middle-aged and without regret (played by Cruz), while the other, an adolescent, is scared and traumatized (played by Milena Smit). The two women form a strong bond with one another as they both confront motherhood.
At its opening night world premiere, the movie received a nine-minute standing ovation from Venice Film Festival attendees in the Sala Grande. "Milena and I, we were so touched and affected by the script and the characters and what happens to them that we would start reading a scene with Pedro, and we would immediately start crying," said Cruz to NPR. "And we could not control it. It was just moving so much inside of us."