Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
The life of the bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey during a day of bullfighting, from the moment he dresses up to the moment he undresses.
Albert Serra's documentary portrait of matador Andrés Roca Rey is a visually audacious and tonally distinctive work. Serra's trademark slow-cinema approach — long, hypnotic takes, extreme close-ups of sweat, blood, and ritual — transforms a single day of bullfighting into something between performance art and anthropological study. The cinematography is genuinely exceptional, capturing the ceremonial preparation and brutal spectacle with an almost painterly intensity. The 'acting' (Roca Rey's self-presentation and Serra's ability to penetrate the mask of masculine performance) is compelling and revelatory. Novelty is high: this is unmistakably a Serra film, with a singular voice that makes it unlike any other bullfighting documentary. The plot, by nature of the documentary format, is thin — a single day's arc — and while structurally purposeful, it offers little narrative surprise. The ending, while tonally consistent, lands somewhat abruptly without a strong sense of culmination beyond the symmetry of dressing and undressing.