An unbearably horny and charmingly funny character study, Mamacruz's story of a grandmother's sexual reawakening owes its success to its virtuosic lead. JacobOller's Sundance2023 review:
’s glimpse at a Spanish woman’s third-quarter life crisis has to offer. A grandmother’s sexual awakening in a tight Catholic community puts all the symbolic dominoes in play, and filmmaker Patricia Ortega knocks them down with sweet charm, unflinching sensuality and touching honesty. A vibrant and lovely character study,The life encasing Cruz is a familiar cage. Her husband Eduardo is clueless, a tired and sloppy old-timer whose silence sits beneath a haircut stolen from The Three Stooges.
Just glimpsing one hard, sweaty good time is all it takes to set her libido back in motion—a dire condition for a woman weathering not only bed death but deep religious repression. The charming, lustful interludes that follow are sweetly funny and filled with truly passionate cinematography.
This desire—really, this entire role—could easily be overplayed, played purely for laughs, or be overwhelmed by the dominant premise. But Mánver is perfect, embodying this moving, endearing slice-of-life with the gravity of a veteran performer and the lightness of an artist embracing a new medium. She’s hesitant, grouchy, sneaky, coy, mournful—the script boldly fills her character out, but Mánver’s dynamic performance erases any possible staginess.
As Ortega and cinematographer Fran Fernández Pardo alternate between bottling Cruz up in her shadowed, cramped, homochromous home and letting her loose out in the ornate and multicolored world, this accelerating visual respiration—in and out—builds up to a glorious climax. Her marriage, her family, her religion, her childhood, her profession—everything can coexist with her evolving relationship towards her own physicality.
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