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Bitter Christmas

Play trailer 1:05 Poster for Bitter Christmas R 1h 51m Drama Comedy Holiday Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
90% Tomatometer 58 Reviews Popcornmeter 0 Verified Ratings
Bitter Christmas tells two alternating stories, one starring Elsa, an advertising director, in 2004, during a long weekend in December. The second takes place in 2026 and stars Raúl, a screenwriter and director who is writing a script that we soon discover is the story of Elsa, her boyfriend Bonifacio, and her friends Patricia and Natalia. Mixed with fiction, Elsa is, in a way, Raúl's alter ego, who, like him, resorts to autofiction as a solution to a long period of creative drought. He looks inside himself, and he can't help but also look at the people who make up his most intimate universe: his partner and his assistant. The film narrates the close relationship between reality and fiction, between inspiration and life, exploring the limits of autofiction and stories within stories.

Critics Reviews

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Mark Kermode Kermode and Mayo's Take (YouTube) 3d
It's not bad, it's just not particularly good. Go to Full Review
Helen O'Hara Empire Magazine 6d
3/5
It’s a meandering and unfocused affair, touching on issues the director has explored before. But if you’re going to simply hang out with people, they might as well be Almodóvar characters. Go to Full Review
Danny Leigh Financial Times 6d
3/5
Visually, the movie gleams with lipstick reds and midnight blues. Watching Almodóvar is never a chore. Still, the first stretch of the film gets as close as he has ever come. Go to Full Review
Vanessa Thorpe Observer (UK) 2d
It is a witty and sensitive mea culpa that leaves no bitter aftertaste. Don’t save it for Christmas Day. Go to Full Review
Adam Sweeting The Arts Desk 6d
4/5
Almodóvar’s brand of cynical sentimentality and fatalistic hope never gives up the ghost, though the pleasures are more intellectual than emotional this time. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Omri S @Omri.sTenenbaum Aug 25 It’s not a good film, but it’s a brave film See more Dani G @RT81139271 Aug 1 Mature... Reflexive... In the same line as Almodovar's recent work See more I S @gidkYs-xyxsyc-tycbi8 Jul 11 I give it half a star so thaht I can write this review but would gladly give it none. That it has very good actors is no doubt. All have made excellent movies in the past, but the problem is clearly not the acting tbut the script, the story or should I say the non-story. It is just simply one of the worst movies I have seen in a very long time. The trama moves aimlessly through time... which becomes unbearable as I waited desperately to see the word FIN...the end just to say I had been able to conquer the boredom and disbelief that this movie actually made it to the theaters. Someone close to Almodovar should be honest with him with the movie or the idea behind the movie just doesn't work. There is no need to pretend this is just a colorful, nicely photographed, terrible movie. See more Doug R @DouggyRand Jun 13 Almodavar is a generational filmmaker but this one will be lost to time. See more Alejandro E @Alex970 Jun 5 El mayor temor de todo cineasta, la página en blanco, en una trama que sabe combinar lo real y lo fantástico de manera que sea fácil para el espectador seguir la pista sin abrumarlo a base de sub tramas. See more Wellington A @RT34692909 Jun 3 Adorei como ele desenvolve o filme e engana você até um certo ponto... a partir do momento que você entende de fato o que está acontecendo, tudo fica fantástico. Atenção às cores das camisas dos personagens por favor. See more Read all reviews

Movie Info

Synopsis Bitter Christmas tells two alternating stories, one starring Elsa, an advertising director, in 2004, during a long weekend in December. The second takes place in 2026 and stars Raúl, a screenwriter and director who is writing a script that we soon discover is the story of Elsa, her boyfriend Bonifacio, and her friends Patricia and Natalia. Mixed with fiction, Elsa is, in a way, Raúl's alter ego, who, like him, resorts to autofiction as a solution to a long period of creative drought. He looks inside himself, and he can't help but also look at the people who make up his most intimate universe: his partner and his assistant. The film narrates the close relationship between reality and fiction, between inspiration and life, exploring the limits of autofiction and stories within stories.
Director
Pedro Almodóvar
Producer
Agustín Almodóvar
Screenwriter
Pedro Almodóvar
Distributor
Sony Pictures Classics
Production Co
Movistar Plus+, El Deseo, Radio Televisión Española (RTVE), Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA), Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO)
Rating
R (Some Sexual Material|Language)
Genre
Drama, Comedy, Holiday
Original Language
Spanish
Release Date (Theaters)
Nov 13, 2026, Limited
Runtime
1h 51m
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