Sony Pictures Classics kicks off its touring eight-film Pedro Almodovar retrospective in New York today at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas. This is all to prep American audience for the forthcoming release of his latest film, Volver. In honor of Pedro, an always contentious figure in the RS ranks, we begin our second Retro column (following Nick Pinkerton's splendid essays on Frank Borzage) with James Crawford covering Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. We'll be following the series weekly as it expands across the country.

We've also got a new review of Miami Vice, surely one of the summer's, if not the year's, best films.

And our Take One symposium isn't exactly old news yet either...

Happy weekend.

It's interesting that a second viewing of Bad Education exposed the movie as something lesser than what you originally saw. So far I've only seen it once, and that first time I appreciated it greatly with an expectation that it would only grow on me upon repeated viewings.

I got a similar feeling about half-way through Volver, which I caught just a few hours ago. Very fast and convoluted it is - to the extent that I even felt emotionally disengaged from the movie for large portions of it (though I never stopped enjoying it). Well before it was over, I was certain I'd already missed out on far too much and would have to go back and watch it all over again (which I would be perfectly happy to do) in order to get the full impact.

And all that speedy convoluting kept me so involved that I didn't realise two hours had elapsed when they did and the ending caught me completely by surprise. And it ended on such a perfect note that all the emotional impact I felt sure I would miss out on this time around suddenly came rushing with the closing credits.

I don't think Volver quite manages to hit the heights of Talk to Her and All About My Mother. But at the moment I feel more passionately happy about it than I do about any other Almodovar joint.