Ranking All Of Director Pedro Almodóvar’s Movies
“What are Pedro Almodóvar’s Best Movies?” We looked at all of Almodóvar’s directed filmography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!
We took all of the movies directed by Pedro Almodóvar and looked at their Rotten Tomato Critic, Rotten Tomato User, Metacritic, Metacritic User, IMDB, and Letterboxd scores, ranking them against one another to see which movies came out on top. The movies are ranked in our list below based on which movies have the highest overall score between all 6 review sites in comparison with all of the other movies by the same director. The process is all very scientific with no flaws at all.
The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page. We will update the article if/when a new movie by Pedro Almodóvar is released. Although it probably won’t be immediate so the scores on each site have time to settle and aren’t overly influenced by the early, usually much more opinionated, users.
Happy Viewing!
The Top Film’s Of Pedro Almodóvar
20 ) Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 20
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 19
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 19
- Letterboxd User Score: 17
Almodovar’s first film of life in Madrid during the punk era and not one for the squeamish. He covers everything from drugs and sexual violence, to female masochism.
19 ) I’m So Excited (2013)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 19
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 20
- Metacritc Critic Score: 11
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 20
- Letterboxd User Score: 20
The film is an ensemble comedy written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. When it appears as though the end is in sight, the pilots, flight crew, and passengers of a plane heading to Mexico City look to forget the anguish of the moment and face the greatest danger, which we carry within ourselves.
18 ) Dark Habits (1983)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 16
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 17
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 16
- Letterboxd User Score: 16
A nightclub singer seeks refuge with gay nuns on dope in a Madrid convent.
17 ) Kika (1993)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 17
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 16
- Metacritc Critic Score: 13
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 17
- Letterboxd User Score: 17
Kika, a young cosmetologist, is called to the mansion of Nicolas, an American writer to make-up the corpse of his stepson, Ramon. Ramon, who is not dead, is revived by Kika’s attentions and she then moves in with him. They might live happily ever after but first they have to cope with Kika’s affair with Nicolas, the suspicious death of Ramon’s mother and the intrusive gaze of tabloid-TV star and Ramon’s ex-psychologist Andrea Scarface.
16 ) Labyrinth of Passion (1982)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 17
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 18
- Letterboxd User Score: 17
A camp melodrama/comedy about Sexilia (a nymphomaniac), Sadec (a gay Islamic terrorist), Riza Niro (the son of the emperor of Tiran), and Queti (the daughter of a dry-cleaner).
15 ) Matador (1986)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 6
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 12
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 14
- Letterboxd User Score: 14
A conflicted youth confesses to crimes he didn’t commit while a man and woman aroused by death become obsessed with each other.
14 ) High Heels (1991)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 18
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 7
- Metacritc Critic Score: 14
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 8
- Letterboxd User Score: 14
High Heels is a murder mystery comedy centering on flamboyant actress Becky del Paramo and her daughter Rebecca, a television anchorwoman. After being estranged for 15 years, Becky re-enters Rebecca’s life when she comes to perform a concert. Rebecca, she finds, is now married to one of Becky’s ex-lovers, Manuel. The mother and daughter begin making up for lost time, when suddenly, a murder occurs…
13 ) Julieta (2016)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 10
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 15
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 11
- IMDB User Review Score: 12
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
The film spans 30 years in Julieta’s life from a nostalgic 1985 where everything seems hopeful, to 2015 where her life appears to be beyond repair and she is on the verge of madness.
11 Tie ) Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 15
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 11
- Metacritc Critic Score: 11
- Metacritic User Score: 4
- IMDB User Review Score: 14
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
Recently released from a mental hospital, Ricky ties up Marina, a film star he once had sex with and keeps her hostage.
11 Tie ) What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 8
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 9
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 8
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
Almodóvar has described his fourth film as a homage to Italian Neorealism, although this tribute also involves jokes about paedophilia, prostitution, and a telekenetic child. The film, set in the towerblocks around Madrid, depicts female frustration and family breakdown.
10 ) The Flower of My Secret (1995)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 10
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 13
- Metacritc Critic Score: 7
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 12
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
Marisa Paredes is Leocadia (“Leo”) Macias, a woman writing “pink” romance novels under the alias of Amanda Gris that are very popular all across Spain. Unlike her romantic novels, her own love life is troubled. Leo has a less than happy relationship with her husband Paco, a military officer stationed in Brussels then later in Bosnia, who is distant both physically and emotionally.
9 ) Broken Embraces (2009)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 12
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 14
- Metacritc Critic Score: 6
- Metacritic User Score: 10
- IMDB User Review Score: 8
- Letterboxd User Score: 7
Harry Caine, a blind writer, reaches this moment in time when he has to heal his wounds from 14 years back. He was then still known by his real name, Mateo Blanco, and directing his last movie.
8 ) Law of Desire (1987)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 9
- Metacritc Critic Score: 15
- Metacritic User Score: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 8
- Letterboxd User Score: 7
When porn director Pablo reluctantly breaks up with his boyfriend, Juan, he encourages him to stay in touch. Juan moves away to live in a lighthouse and eventually writes his ex, but in the interim Pablo has taken up a psychotic new lover, Antonio (Antonio Banderas). Antonio intercepts their correspondence and flies into a towering rage, terrifying Pablo but inspiring him creatively as he works on a play about his transsexual sister.
7 ) Live Flesh (1997)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 13
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 5
- Metacritc Critic Score: 10
- Metacritic User Score: 12
- IMDB User Review Score: 7
- Letterboxd User Score: 7
A scorned ex-convict forces himself into the lives of the couple who put him behind bars.
6 ) The Skin I Live In (2011)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 13
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 7
- Metacritc Critic Score: 9
- Metacritic User Score: 6
- IMDB User Review Score: 3
- Letterboxd User Score: 3
A brilliant plastic surgeon creates a synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.
5 ) Bad Education (2004)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 6
- Metacritc Critic Score: 5
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 6
- Letterboxd User Score: 6
Two children, Ignacio and Enrique, know love, the movies and fear in a religious school at the beginning of the 1960s. Father Manolo, director of the school and its professor of literature, is witness to and part of these discoveries. The three are followed through the next few decades, their reunion marking life and death.
4 ) Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 6
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
- Metacritc Critic Score: 3
- Metacritic User Score: 3
- IMDB User Review Score: 3
- Letterboxd User Score: 4
Pepa resolves to kill herself with a batch of sleeping-pill-laced gazpacho after her lover leaves her. Fortunately, she is interrupted by a deliciously chaotic series of events.
3 ) Volver (2006)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 4
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
- Metacritc Critic Score: 4
- Metacritic User Score: 1
- IMDB User Review Score: 3
- Letterboxd User Score: 4
Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) works and lives Madrid with her husband Paco and daughter Paula. Her sister Sole (Lola Dueñas) lives nearby and they both miss their mother Irene (Carmen Maura), who died several years ago in a house fire along with their father. A former neighbor from their hometown reports that she has seen the ghost of Irene and both daughters do not believe her. After a murder and a family tragedy, Irene’s spirit materializes around her daughters to help comfort them.
2 ) Talk to Her (2002)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 4
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 1
- Metacritc Critic Score: 2
- Metacritic User Score: 4
- IMDB User Review Score: 1
- Letterboxd User Score: 1
Two men share an odd friendship while they care for two women who are both in deep comas.
1 ) All About My Mother (1999)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 3
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 1
- Metacritc Critic Score: 1
- Metacritic User Score: 1
- IMDB User Review Score: 2
- Letterboxd User Score: 1
A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his birthday as he runs to seek an actress’ autograph. Beside herself with grief, she returns to Barcelona to tell the boy’s father about the death of the son he never knew he had.
Pedro Almodóvar’s Best Movies
Pedro Almodóvar Review Website Filmography Rankings
| Film | RT Critic | RT User | MC Critic | MC User | IMDB | Letterboxd | Overal Rank |
| All About My Mother | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Talk to Her | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Volver | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Bad Education | 9 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| The Skin I Live In | 13 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| Live Flesh | 13 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Law of Desire | 1 | 9 | 15 | 13 | 8 | 7 | 8 |
| Broken Embraces | 12 | 14 | 6 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 9 |
| The Flower of My Secret | 10 | 13 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 10 | 10 |
| Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! | 15 | 11 | 11 | 4 | 14 | 10 | 11 |
| What Have I Done to Deserve This? | 8 | 9 | 15 | 13 | 8 | 10 | 11 |
| Julieta | 10 | 15 | 8 | 11 | 12 | 10 | 13 |
| High Heels | 18 | 7 | 14 | 8 | 8 | 14 | 14 |
| Matador | 6 | 12 | 15 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 15 |
| Labyrinth of Passion | 1 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 18 | 17 | 16 |
| Kika | 17 | 16 | 13 | 13 | 17 | 17 | 17 |
| Dark Habits | 16 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 16 | 16 | 18 |
| I’m So Excited | 19 | 20 | 11 | 13 | 20 | 20 | 19 |
| Pepi, Luci, Bom | 20 | 19 | 15 | 13 | 19 | 17 | 20 |