Award-winning ‘The Girl Next Door’ in Philippine cinemas Feb. 19

CEBU, Philippines — Ayala Malls Cinemas’ exclusive offering of award-winning films continues with acclaimed director Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,” which will open exclusively in select branches on February 19. Starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, the film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival last year, and was nominated for several awards at the prestigious Goya Awards, winning Best Adapted Screenplay for Almodóvar, who wrote the script based on the novel “What Are You Going Through” by Sigrid Nunez.

“‘The Room Next Door’ talks about the rekindling of an old friendship, in an intimate, extreme situation,” says Almodóvar of his first English-language feature film. Part of the QCinema lineup last November, the film will be back on Philippine screens starting Feb. 19, this time exclusively in select Ayala Malls Cinemas, specifically Glorietta, Greenbelt, Trinoma, Marquee, Abreeza, Centrio, Fairview Terraces, BHS, Legazpi, UPTC, Vertis North, Cloverleaf, Feliz, Circuit, Capitol Central, Manila Bay and Central Bloc.

In the film, Ingrid (Moore) and Martha (Swinton) were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid went on to become an autofiction novelist while Martha became a war reporter, and they were separated by the circumstances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.

Almodóvar speaks highly of Moore and Swinton, both of whom are previous Academy Award winners, much like the director himself. “People talk a lot in my films, the word is as essential as in the theater,” he says. “Among all the narrative elements [all of them important and in which I am unreservedly involved], it is the actors, the actresses, who really tell the story. In ‘The Room Next Door’ Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore take all the weight of the film on their shoulders. They are the spectacle.”

“Quiet yet moving, ‘The Room Next Door’ is a heartfelt meditation on friendship, grief, and death,” said RogerEbert.com in their review.

Total Film praised Almodóvar’s choice of color palette for his latest feature, as well as Swinton and Moore’s performances. “‘The Room Next Door’ is filled with color [pistachio sun loungers, pink snowflakes, rust-coloured leaves and, of course, pops of signature red], not to mention jolts of passion, rage, ambition, lust, hurt, and intrigue,” they wrote. “Deftly navigating a script that takes in poetry, John Huston films, and environmental concerns, Moore and Swinton excel as accomplished women who worry about their failings.”

Ayala Malls Cinemas has become a premier destination for cinephiles for whom critically acclaimed films are a must-watch, thanks to the Cinemas’ ever dependable lineup of exclusive awards season favorites throughout the year. Before “The Room Next Door,” other award-winning films exclusively shown at Ayala Malls Cinemas recently include “Anora” and “A Real Pain.” Also coming soon is “The Brutalist.” — (FREEMAN)