The sword fighting cat (and one-time nemesis of Shrek) peels off on his own adventure.

When Fiona's dad dies Shrek is supposed to take the crown but Shrek doesn't want the responsibility. So Shrek, Fiona,Donkey and Puss look for a new king. And so far King Arthur is the best they got.

A former professional dancer (Banderas) volunteers to teach dance in the New York public school system. While his background first clashes with his students' tastes, together they create a completely new style of dance. Based on the story of ballroom dancer Pierre Dulane.

Lauren (Jennifer Lopez), an impassioned American reporter for the Chicago Sentinel heads to Juarez, a Mexican bordertown, in order to investigate a series of mysterious slayings involving young factory women from all over Mexico. As she discovers hundreds of victims, she gains the trust of local factory workers but falls into danger.

Action/Adventure, Comedy and Romance
The sequel to the 1998 film "The Mask of Zorro," once again starring Antonio Banderas as the swashbuckling hero in black and Catherine Zeta-Jones as a woman who is quite the swordwielder herself.

Drama, Romance and Thriller
In Buenos Aires during the Peron era, an Argentine playwright has a preternatural ability to see what will happen to people's loved ones -- many of whom are missing, or soon will be -- when he looks into their faces. Ultimately, he must turn this power inward, when his activist journalist wife disappears.

Action/Adventure, Comedy, Kids/Family, Science Fiction/Fantasy and Animation
1 hr. 45 min. Picking up exactly where the first movie left off, this movie takes us to the kingdom of Far, Far Away as Shrek and Fiona return to her homeland to tell her parents (Cleese, Andrews) the good news. Not everyone is happy to find her married to an ogre, with the most irate in this group being Prince Charming (Everett), who was supposed to be the one who lifted Fiona's curse. We're also introduced to the mysterious Fairy Godmother (Saunders), and a bar called the Poison Apple, where the villains of the fairy tale world hang out, including the great ogre-slayer, Puss-in-Boots (Banderas).

Starring Antonio Banderas as the legendary Pancho Villa, Bruce Beresford's star-studded HBO production brings to life a truly surreal story. In the early 1900s, Villa, the enthusiastic Mexican revolutionary, was looking for a way to support his cause. Enter master filmmaker D.W. Griffith (Colm Feore), who was trying to take cinema to a whole new level. The resulting partnership resulted in the film THE LIFE OF GENERAL VILLA, a picture that bravely blurred the line between fiction and reality. In the process, Villa became a cultural sensation, giving both men the acclaim that they desperately seeked. Written by Larry Gelbart, AND STARRING PANCHO VILLA AS HIMSELF is another finely crafted HBO production.

Action/Adventure
1 hr. 41 min. Robert Rodriguez returns with the mythic guitar-slinging hero, El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas), in the final installment of the Mariachi/Desperado trilogy. The saga continues as El Mariachi makes his way across a rugged landscape on the blood trail of Barrillo (Willem Dafoe), a cartel kingpin with one last score to settle who is planning a coup d’etat against the president of Mexico. Enlisted by Sands (Johnny Depp), a corrupt CIA agent, El Mariachi demands retribution, and the adventure begins against a backdrop of revolution, greed, and revenge.

Action/Adventure, Kids/Family and Science Fiction/Fantasy
1 hr. 29 min. The continuing adventures of spy siblings Juni and Carmen Cortez (Daryl Sabara and Alexa Vega).

Action/Adventure
1 hr. 31 min. Haunted by the mysterious death of his wife, reclusive former FBI manhunter Jeremiah Ecks (Antonio Banderas) is blackmailed back into service to track down an unstoppable ex-DIA operative, code-named Sever (Lucy Liu), who has kidnapped the young son of the head of a secret committee of international security agencies.

Thriller
1 hr. 50 min. This is a film noir thriller about a woman (Romijn-Stamos) trying to straighten out her life, even as her past as a con-woman comes back to haunt her.

Drama and Romance
2 hrs. 03 min. This film tells the true story of Mexican painter and 20th century icon Frida Kahlo (Hayek), focusing on her often rocky relationship with husband Diego Rivera (Molina), and their place in Mexican society. Included in the mix will be David Siqueiros (Banderas), Rivera's rival in the Mexican art world, Tina Modotti (Judd), a famed Italian photographer, and Nelson Rockefeller (Norton), who famously contracted Rivera to paint the lobby mural of Rockefeller Center, only to renege because it included a portrait of Lenin. Others in their social circle included Russian leader and refugee Leon Trotsky (Rush) (soon before Stalin had him assassinated there), muralist Jean Charlot, painter Pablo O'Higgins, composer Silvestre Revueltas, and photographer Edward Weston. In addition to being a great artist, Frida Kahlo was also a bisexual and a communist, struggling with an abusive husband, a life of wracking pain following a trolley accident, the amputation of a leg, and finally, drug and alcohol abuse that killed her at age 47.

Action/Adventure and Kids/Family
1 hr. 30 min. When the world is in trouble they call in their top secret agents. Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara) Cortez are back for another adventure in SPY KIDS 2: THE ISLAND OF LOST DREAMS. Their newest mission takes them to a mysterious island where they meet a wildly inventive genetic scientist (Steve Buscemi) and his imaginative creatures, while fighting the forces of rival SPY kids, Gary (Matt O'Leary) and Gerti (Emily Osment) Giggles, as they head right into a trap that will test each and every Cortez spy, from super spies Mom and Dad to their SPY grandparents (Ricardo Montalban, Holland Taylor). This summer … Carmen and Juni go on a mission so big, they’ll have to bring the whole family.

Drama
1 hr. 40 min. In Jerusalem, two mismatched people - Vatican-appointed Jesuit preist Matt Gutierrez and Israeli archaeologist Sharon Golban - make a tenuous alliance to investigate a find that threatens the foundation of western religion and the region's fragile peace. Sharon has discovered an ancient skeleton in a rich man's tomb, the cause of death an apparent crucifixion, a gold coin bears the markings of Pontius Pilate, and other signs are evident which might corroborate Biblical descriptions of the death of the first century Judean rabbi Yeshu Ben Yosef... better known to the western world as Jesus, son of Joseph. Now, against increasingly difficult obstacles placed in their path by those locked in the power struggle in this part of the world - politicians, clerics, extremists, terrorists - Matt and Sharon find their beliefs and identities tested while risking their lives to penetrate the truth of this discovery.

Drama and Thriller
1 hr. 56 min. A noir mystery set in the exotic world of Cuba in the late 1800s. Luis Antonio Vargas, a wealthy coffee merchant, arranges a marriage through the mail but discovers that the woman who arrives to share his house is an imposter with an eye on his fortune. When he arrives at the docks to meet Julia Russell, he is amazed to find that she is not the simple woman he was expecting. Though happier than he ever imagined, the surprises continue until the story takes a fateful turn. This is the story about the dangerous and sometimes lethal power of love.

Action/Adventure, Comedy and Kids/Family
1 hr. 30 min. Gregorio and Ingrid are the two greatest secret agents the world has ever known: masters of disguise, mavens of invention, able to stop wars before they even start. Working for separate countries, they are sent to eliminate their most dangerous enemy...each other. But in an exotic corner of the world when they finally come face to face, they fall in love instead and embark on the most dangerous mission they have ever faced: raising a family. Now, nine years later, after their retirement, having exchanged the adventure of espionage for parenthood, Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez are called back into action. When their former colleagues, the world's most formidable spies, start disappearing one by one, the Cortez's are forced to take on techno-wizard Fegan Floop and his evil, egg-headed sidekick, Minion. But when the unthinkable happens and they too disappear, there are only two people in the world who can rescue them...their kids. Armed with a bag of high tech gadgets! and out-of-this world transportation, Carmen and Juni will bravely jet through the air, dive under the seas and crisscross the globe in a series of thrilling adventures on a mission to stop Floop, save their parents...and maybe even the world. Sometimes the biggest heroes are the smallest ones.

Based on John Fergus Ryan's popular novel THE LITTLE BROTHERS OF ST. MORTIMER, THE WHITE RIVER KID is a zany adventure with a plethora of oddball characters on the road in the Bible Belt. Brother Edgar (Bob Hoskins) is a traveling salesman pushing low quality socks (he buys them in bulk and sells them at a profit, telling people they're made by blind children) who hides behind his self-anointed priesthood to avoid local sheriffs like Becker (Randy Travis). He has adopted Morales Pittman (Antonio Banderas), a moody Mexican wetback who has bigger, more illegitimate dreams than Edgar, and who is obsessed with reading, and quoting from, law journals. The two travel around Arkansas, selling their socks and bumping into a variety of simple souls. But it's not until they meet mythic serial killer, The White River Kid (Wes Bentley), that things get really crazy. The Kid has recently gotten engaged to Apple Lisa Weed (Kim Dickens), and decided to give up his murdering ways. This does not mean that he's any less unpredictable, however. With a fast-paced story, and a hilarious, surprising appearance by Swoosie Kurtz and Beau Bridges who play Apple's parents, THE WHITE RIVER KID is a wild ride of a film.

Comedy
2 hrs. 05 min. "Play It to the Bone" stars Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson (as welterweight boxers Caesar Dominguez and Vince Boudreau, respectively, who get a final shot at boxing's big time. With only a few hours to get to Vegas, they take an unexpectedly circuitous road trip through the sizzling desert with quirky girlfriend Grace Pasic.

Action/Adventure and Thriller
1 hr. 54 min. Based on Michael Crichton's best-selling novel "Eaters of the Dead," "The 13th Warrior" is an exciting and unforgettable adventure thriller. When an important emissary is abducted by a band of warriors, he is forced to join their quest to battle mysterious creatures legendary for consuming every living thing in their path. Eventually surrounded by the frightening and ferocious foe, Ahmed must conquer his personal fears and help battle the illusive invadors- who emerge out of the shroud of fog in the black night.

Comedy and Drama
Banderas' directorial debut has enough plots for two movies. In one, crazy Lucille (Griffith) chops off her husband's head and flees to Hollywood to become a star. In another, a small black boy, Taylor Jackson (Miller), is the victim of brutally vicious racism, sparking a heated civil rights battle. All of this is seen through the eyes of Peejoe (Black), a young boy who recounts the events with a nostalgic memory, bringing all of the various subplots together.

Action/Adventure
2 hrs. 16 min. Two Tonys (Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas) give us two Zorros in Martin Campbell's winsome revival of old California's legendary masked hero. It's a summer movie showing that swords and repartee are more fun than a barrel of asteroids.

Musical/Performing Arts
Madonna tackles the title role in Alan Parker's ambitious recounting of the brief, amazing life of former Argentine first lady Eva Perףn. Presented almost entirely in song and narrated by Antonio Banderas as a fictional everyman, the film charts the alternately revered and reviled Evita's rise from poverty to become a film and radio actress; her relationship with President Juan Perףn (Jonathan Pryce); and her tragic death from cancer at age 33.

Banderas, a surprisingly moving singer, and the inimitable Madonna, who took voice lessons before filming commenced to expand her vocal range, provide the emotional bedrock for the eminently enjoyable film with their charismatic screen presences. The music, including the Oscar-winning song "You Must Love Me," weaves an entrancing web, and the sets and costumes are awe inspiring. Parker does a fine job of adapting Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical for the big screen. The director's vision shines clearly here: Like PINK FLOYD: THE WALL, EVITA is an enchanting mixture of epic fairy tale and sociopolitical psychodrama.

Drama
A sheltered, well-to-do magazine editor living under the shadow of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile has her senses awakened when a handsome photographer comes to her for a job. A sympathizer with the underground resistance movement, the photographer opens her eyes to the atrocities being committed by the state. A romantic thriller based on the novel by Isabel Allende.

Art/Foreign
Antonio Banderas, who had previously appeared in Carlos Saura's STILTS (LOS ZANCOS), stars as Marcos, a Madrid newspaper reporter who becomes involved with a sensational murder investigation. Although generally known for more cerebral fare, in OUTRAGE Saura takes an emotional story of revenge and tells it in a straightforward style. Marcos is sent to do an article on Circus performers where he meets Ana (Francesca Neri), a trick horseback rider and sharp shooter. At first she is cool and distant, wanting him to pay her for an interview, but he gets her to agree to it in exchange for putting her picture in the paper. The last part of the story differs sharply from the love story. Ana is bothered during her act by three drunken young men who follow her to her trailer and sexually assault her. In the morning she takes her gun and goes out to take revenge on them.

Until the climactic end Marcos and Ana have no more scenes together. He follows her actions from the newspaper and TV reports. She leaves frantic messages on his answering machine. This suspense technique, keeping the lovers apart as the action spins out of control provides and interesting ending to Saura's first attempt at the urban thriller genre.

Comedy
When a struggling art gallery owner attracts the amorous attentions of a rich divorcee he thinks he's got it made, but when he meets her disinterested sister he falls in love with her instead. Not wanting to mess up a good thing, he invents a long-lost twin brother whom he uses to romance his fiancee's sister. Hilarity and hijinks ensue.

Action/Adventure and Crime/Gangster
An aging professional assassin who's looking to get out of the business becomes prey for his psychotic, up-and-coming protege, mirroring the hit-man's own ascension fifteen years earlier.

Action/Adventure and Crime/Gangster
The no-named Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) tracks down the last Mexican drug-lord "Bucho" with the help of his best friend and a beautiful book store owner (Salma Hayek). In a poetically violent style reminiscent of John Woo and Sam Peckinpah, the Mariachi takes on his entire army of henchmen in a dusty border town as an act of revenge for the murder of his love and his injured musician's hand. Robert Rodriguez's big budget sequel to "El Mariachi." Also starring Cheech Marin (of Cheech and Chong) and Steve Buscemi (RESERVOIR DOGS).

Comedy
A hapless Los Angeles bellhop struggles to survive New Year's Eve in this quartet of episodes each directed by a rising independent film auteur. "The Missing Ingredient" (Allison Anders) involves a coven of witches who lack a necessary life fluid; "The Wrong Man" (Alexandre Rockwell) centers on an abusive S&M couple; "The Misbehavers" (Robert Rodriguez) offers the bratty kids of a dangerous gangster; and "The Man From Hollywood" (Quentin Tarantino) re-creates a gruesome Hitchcock bet.

Comedy
When a young woman accepts a marriage proposal, she questions her decision after discovering that everyone in her family is unfaithful.

Gwyn discusses her dysfunctional family and love life with her psychiatrist: her mother is having an affair with Antonio, the young, exceptionally passionate man who cares for her ailing grandmother, while her brother Jordon is cheating on his pregnant wife with his business partner's beautiful spouse. At the same time, Gwyn's father is making whoopee with a travel agent Zelda. Into this messy situation comes Antonio's mother, who's demanding to meet his girlfriend. Antonio begs Gwyn to pose as his beloved even though she's already engaged. She agrees, and during their pseudo-date, the two begin to fall in love. A breezy romantic comedy in the style of Woody Allen.

Drama
A shy, distant psychologist is in for more than she bargained for when she allows herself to fall in love with a handsome, possibly lethal stranger in this erotic thriller.

Drama
Based on Isabel Allende's novel and set in a South American country beset by constant turmoil and bloody power struggles, this film follows three generations of the Truebas family from the 1920s through the 1970s. Just as the nation around them is at odds with itself, the family painfully and passionately experiences its own evolution. The talented cast includes Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, and Winona Ryder.

Suspense/Horror
Horror author Anne Rice penned the screenplay for this full-blooded adaptation of her novel, which chronicles the life of 18th-century nobleman Louis (Brad Pitt) after he is bitten by powerful, charismatic vampire Lestat (Tom Cruise). Though enthralled with the undead lifestyle at first, Louis is unable to warm up to killing humans and grows despondent. To comfort Louis, Lestat creates another vampire (Kirsten Dunst in a star-making peformance), a young girl who from then on cannot age. Antonio Banderas appears as Armand, a 400-year-old vampire, and Christian Slater plays the radio producer who interviews the remorseful Louis.

Director Neil Jordan captures the lush decadence and erotic fervor of the novel, infusing the film with rich, dusky tones. The big budget is well used to bring each period and place to sharply detailed life, and there is no skimping on the blood or immortal angst. Thandie Newton has a small role as Louis's Creole servant near the beginning of the film, and Jordan regular Stephen Rea appears as a Parisian vampire theater star. INTERVIEW broke weekend box-office records when it premiered and has since earned a spot in the pantheon of great vampire films.

Drama
Tom Hanks plays Andrew Beckett, a hotshot Philadelphia lawyer who has been keeping his homosexuality, and his AIDS, hidden from his conservative bosses. When he's suddenly and inexplicably fired, Andrew suspects AIDS is the reason, and is determined to fight in court, even as he is losing his other battle, against the disease. Beckett hires attorney Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) to represent him, but the lawyer must first overcome his own homophobia and fears. Director Jonathan Demme filmed this after winning the Oscar for SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. The amazing cast includes Antonio Banderas, Joanne Woodward, and Jason Robards. Roger Corman and Charles Napier, both in LAMBS, make appearances. Bruce Springsteen's haunting song "Streets of Philadelphia" plays over the memorable opening credits. This sensitive, moody film touches on a vast array of subjects surrounding gay and straight men, family, and death, without ever being maudlin or preachy, which is to its immense credit. An undoubted influence on society's growing acceptance of homosexuality, PHILADELPHIA reminds us how far we've come in that direction, and how far we still need to go.

Drama
Two ambitious Cuban brothers come to New York to make a name for themselves as musicians during the mambo craze of the 1950's. By day they work hard at manual labor, at night they are transformed; but the pressures of fame threaten to drive them apart. Academy Award Nominations: Best Song ("Beautiful Maria of My Soul").

This film, which won a Goya for Best Actor, is based around a legendary brand of storytelling, "aventis," that blends fact, fiction, and myth to tell its sprawling tales. Decades after the Civil War in Barcelona, a doctor and a nurse stumble across a body that played a vital role in their childhood "aventis." As flashbacks reveal the story that may or may not have happened, the modern couple uncovers a whole new series of surprises.

Art/Foreign
Six young friends cope with personal crises and changes in the cultural climate in 1950s Venezuela.

Art/Foreign
A man escapes his incestuous affair with his sister, isolating himself in a remote area of Andalucia. After a year passes, his sister comes to visit him, the one man she truly loves.

Art/Foreign
Antonio Banderas caught the world's attention with his portrayal of Ricky, an orphaned mental patient who stalks and kidnaps Marina (Victoria Abril), a porn actress and junkie, in order to make her love him in this decided departure for iconoclastic Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodףvar. Suspense, tension, and uneasy humor mingle as Marina grapples with her addictive nature, a very bad toothache, and her own confusion about the need to be loved and the need for freedom. Meanwhile, Mבximo (Francisco Rabal), an aging director who has just shot Marina's latest film, finds himself obsessed with her, while sister Lola (Loles Leףn) worries Marina might be back on drugs and starts trying to track her down. The tension mounts as her sister closes in, and Marina becomes torn by her desire to escape and her growing affection for her captor. Almodףvar followed up his hit WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN with this controversial, steamy thriller that contains nudity and some very passionate sex. The cast includes Almodףvar regulars Rossy de Palma, Julieta Serrano, and Marםa Barranco and features a tense musical score by Ennio Morricone.

Art/Foreign
This colorful hit put director Pedro Almodףvar on the international map and cemented the reputation of its star, Carmen Maura. The film is a peppy little soap bubble as TV actress Pepa (Maura) wakes up to find a note from her lover, Ivan (Fernando Guillיn), informing her he is leaving. Desperate to tell him some important information, Pepa almost kills herself with sleeping pills, burns her bed, and spends most of the movie trying to track him down. Her adventures put her in contact with Ivan's insane ex-wife (Julieta Serrano), his handsome son (Antonio Banderas), and the son's fiancיe (Rossy de Palma). They all descend on her penthouse apartment in a deliriously comic extended scene, complicated by a pitcher full of narcotic gazpacho and her friend Candela (Marםa Barranco), a ditzy beauty wanted by the police for associating with Shiite terrorists. Through it all, the indefatigable Pepa fights gallantly against her crushing heartbreak. As a testament to the resilient beauty of women, this free-spirited film rings true and is a treasure. Also appearing are Chus Lampreave, Kiti Manver, Yayo Calvo, and Guillermo Montesinos as the hilarious driver of the Mambo Taxi.

Art/Foreign
A Spanish hustler hooks up with a moneyed older woman, plumbing her bank accounts in hopes of one day reuniting with his brother in the titular city. But his gravy train stops short of its station after the woman's prescient nightmares drive her to a psychotherapist, who becomes captivated by the very man trying to con her patient. After initiating an affair with him, the two lovers arrange their freedom with a bum murder rap, but when it falls flat, betrayals follow.

Art/Foreign
This bold tale of passion's dire consequences is one of Spanish director Pedro Almodףvar's most smoldering films. Antonio Banderas stars as Antonio Benםtez, an obsessive fan of writer-director Pablo Quintero (Eusebio Poncela), a cocaine-snorting homosexual hedonist whose last boyfriend, Juan (Miguel Molina), has just moved out. Antonio and Pablo have a few passionate nights, but Antonio's obsessive love soon proves hard for the noncommittal Pablo to escape from. Meanwhile, Pablo's transsexual sister, Tina (Carmen Maura), has problems of her own, including a closet brimming with dark sexual skeletons and Ada (Manuela Velasco), her unofficially adopted daughter. Pablo writes a play for Tina to star in, but when Antonio stalks and murders Juan in a fit of jealousy, the police end up suspecting the character Tina performs in the play. Pablo winds up with amnesia after a car accident, and the troubles just get weirder from there. For American audiences unfamiliar with Almodףvar's style, this film may prove a shocking experience, but his fans know that beneath their transgressive exteriors, his films throb with a palpable love of humanity, life, beauty, and art. This is a fine example of that art, with great music and memorable performances all around.

Art/Foreign
This twisted, brave, funny film from Spanish director Pedro Almodףvar takes an unflinching look at the link between sex, death, and religion. Antonio Banderas stars as ֱngel, a sensitive student of matador Diego (Nacho Martinez), whose goring at the horns of a bull has left him obsessed with killing. In order to prove his manhood to Diego, the misguided ֱngel tries to rape his model girlfriend (Eva Cobo), and when that fails, he confesses to a string of murders he didn’t commit. Marםa (Assumpta Serna), a mysterious, attractive lawyer, takes his case but winds up falling for Diego, revealing some dark secrets of her own. The pair begin a beautifully doomed romance as a police inspector (Eusebio Poncela) begins to fathom who the real killer, or killers, may be. This was the fifth film from the talented Almodףvar, and it reveals a true genius at work in his use of symbolic color, structure, metaphor, and homage to Hitchcock and Welles. MATADOR is fast-moving, disturbing, erotic, and undeniably brilliant in a way most American audiences may not be prepared for but should certainly seek out. Almodףvar regulars Carmen Maura, Julietta Serano, Chus Lampreave, and Verףnica Forquי costar.

Art/Foreign
Fernando Ferran Gomez wrote and stars in STILTS (LOS ZANCOS), a bittersweet May-December romance. When Angel (Gomez), a literature professor in his sixties, goes to his country house to recover from the death of his wife, he quickly falls into a deep depression and is saved from a suicide attempt by the timely arrival of his neighbor, Terese (Laura del Sol) who invites him for dinner. Terese and her boyfriend, Alberto (Antonio Banderas), both in their late twenties, have moved to the country to get away from the crowds and noise of Madrid. She is a teacher, he's an actor with a troop that performs medieval fairy tales on stilts. Angel agrees to write a play for the troop in order to spend time with Terese, with whom he falls helplessly in love.

THE STILTS comments on the generation gap in Spanish art and culture. Angel is from the old Spain, he reads the melancholy verses of Quevedo to Terese, but she prefers the fun of doing plays on stilts. Saura does a splendid job of filming the actors on stilts and the play they perform is very funny, making a nice contrast to the sad love story. Banderas, in a small role, still exudes the star quality that later brought him leading roles in American films.

Art/Foreign
In LABYRINTH OF PASSION, Celia Roth (who over a decade later would star in Pedro Almodףvar's Oscar-winning ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER) portrays Sexi, a nymphomaniac punk rocker whose gynecologist father (Fernando Vivanco) specializes in artificial insemination. Spanish heartthrob Imanol Arias is Riza Niro, the gay son of the Emperor of Tehran, who has fled his father's island exile to have some fun in Madrid. The two meet and eventually fall in love, but that's just the tip of the iceberg in this whirlwind comedy. This was only Almodףvar's second film, but already he shows undeniable genius for mixing layered storylines and touching characterizations with fearlessly transgressive eroticism. Homosexuality, orgies, drugs, incest, and drag queens--Almodףvar embraces them all. LABYRINTH OF PASSION is a cult favorite in Spain, where it is regularly revived in midnight screenings, and deserves discovery from American audiences unafraid to try something unusual and exciting. A very young Antonio Banderas plays one of Riza's lovers. Look for Almodףvar himself as lead singer of a band in one of the film's hilarious concert scenes, singing "Grang Ganga" and "Suck it to Me."