Talk To Her (2002)

The second and greatest film in what I like to refer to as Pedro's "Trans-Gender Trilogy". With All About My Mother you begin with an incapacitated/dead male and continue with a story that is almost exclusively female. For Talk To Her, this is reversed and it is the females who are incapacitated for a male story. Finally, in Bad Education you are dealing exclusively with male characters. If you want to make it a quadrilogy you can always throw in The Skin I Live In as well.

So why is this the best film of the series? Well to begin with it's a beautiful and touching exploration of loneliness and grief. Then there's the fact that Pedro is able to make you feel sympathy for a character who has done a despicable thing. Let's also not forget the ingenious implementation of that silent film sequence. Oh and the music! And the acting! And the colors! The Academy choosing to honor this film with Best Original Screenplay almost makes up for Chicago winning best picture - almost. Oh and I didn't even mention the dance sequences! So much beauty in this film, even midst the darkness.