Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Prostitution is an interesting subject dealt countless times since the invention of motion picture. Sometimes in a humorous tone, often dark, a few times melodramatic and sometimes as oppressed. But Spanish director Fernando Leon De Aranoa's Princesas takes on an altogether new and different platform with equal doses of all these genres. Clubbed with chart-topping music, engaging cinematography, and real awesome acting, Princesas is one of Spain's finest and the best two hours one can have.The screenplay and story are fresh and tackle prostitution from a different view-point. There is racism, rape, communicable diseases, family problems, want of money and love stories. All in the bag but none is made the center-of-focus. The focus always remains the relationship between two prostitutes and how they, despite being from different backgrounds, come close due to the similar situations they find themselves stuck in.There is hardly any boring moment throughout. The screenplay twists and turns effectively. The character of Caey's boyfriend is very well developed. Their first date, the scene in the bathroom, 'picking up after work' are very well written and executed but what is marvelous is the character's culmination. Mutely looking at each other in the ugly situation, coping up with their flaws and losses, Candela Pena and Luis Callejo are just terrific in this scene. But what made the film for me was Micaela Nevarez' performance. The fact that she has acted in just two films baffles me. He character was strong and meaty and she uses the opportunity effectively.Candela Pena has a charming screen presence and shares an enticing chemistry with Nevarez. She is nature to the core and makes us laugh and sympathize with her at the same time. Her scenes with her family and her mother are another highlight. The background score is gritty and nerve- raising but what steals the show in the end are the two songs by Machu Pinnu. They are meaningful, hummable and bring the fun-factor. Fernando takes a commercial approach & doesn't bother to make any social commentary. The film is realistic, fun, sad and entertaining. The center of the film is always the two characters (the princesses) dealing through their shortcomings and the sort of work that earns them their living.The film is filled with numerous story lines and undercurrents that happen simultaneously and depicts the lives of two odd prostitutes in Spain to near perfection. It is delightful to watch, hard-hitting at places, realistic but amusing, entertaining and tells a wonderful story. A strong 8 on 10.

Sort of flic young people will find deep and meaningful...hookers in the fast lane of stylish Spain in the Euro (this was 2005). Complete with choreographed hooker scenes. Two hookers Caye and Zulema meet and become friends. Zulema is from the Dominican Republic...Caye a middle class girl who is working to get breast implants. They become fast friends. This is deep realism. This is such an old theme making hookers more mainstream than they are-- there is nothing new about this movie. Middle class actresses do not look like real hookers---there is a hardness that is missing. However, the sound track was great and there is plenty of female nudity if this lights your fire. It doesn't mine. The movie is long with out much happening... The actors good the filming good but yawn. The most exciting part is left up to the viewer to guess about...In the final scenes Zulema must find out that she has HIV (what else could be happening)---she then may have tried to give it to a tormentor of hers by having anal sex with him? None of this is explicitly revealed. Why? Not on the top of my recommend list.

Fernando Leon De Aranoa has created a film showing the realistic struggles that might be experienced by anyone existing in society, particularly the lower class. Princesas follows the life of Caye (Played by Candela Pena), which I find interesting because "Caye" means "street", and Caye works the streets, and her friend Zulema (played by Micaela Nevarez). Caye is a citizen of Spain, raised in a middle-class family, and Zulema is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic. Zulema has come to Spain hoping to obtain a working license, and tries to save money to bring her son to Spain. There are other prostitutes who have immigrated to Spain and turned to prostitution as an occupation, and this creates tension with the prostitutes that are Spanish Citizens. Caye Spanish friends are all prejudice against the immigrant prostitutes, accusing them of stealing their jobs, and Caye struggles to maintain her friendship with both the Spanish prostitutes and Zulema. The friendship between Caye and Zulema grows stronger as the movie progresses, and their friendship helps them overcome obstacles.During the day, the lighting in this movie seems very natural, as if the sun is the sole source of lighting. This gives an authentic feel to the movie, instead of Hollywood dramatization that can be caused by artificial lighting. The obstacles that the characters face are also realistic. They are not far fetched, and their situations could potentially happen to anyone in their shoes. This adds to the realistic feel of the movie. Most of the shots in Princesas are done at an eye-level angle, which allows the viewer to get absorbed into the movie, forgetting that it is just a movie and not reality. Whenever the characters have an emotional scene, the camera zooms in, showing a close up of their faces. This really emphasizes the emotion, whether it's sorrow, joy, or anger, and allows the viewer to feel more connected to the characters.The authenticity of Princesas will draw you in, and the strong bond of friendship between two women as they struggle through life will keep you captivated, feeling their joy and sorrow as you follow their journey.

...Because almost all the ones that do have money and connections are shallow and gutless and that's why you have to dig and dig and dig to find a good film.Another reviewer got a 0/11 out of the eleven gracious contributors to this film fro saying this is boring. He was right in saying that the acting is indeed very good, the main actress does seem to overact a bit, but the domenican girl is a joy to watch, and the minor characters are very well acted too.So, big love to the actors here, great job.Big boos to the directors and screenwriters. What a shallow sophomoric story, no twists, no turns, and that could be acceptable if at least there was some semblance of a cinema verity, a gritty reality portrayed. But there's none of this.The film doesn't build up, doesn't explore characters, doesn't even have one single story to tell. Forget imagination or plot. I am not a blockbuster Hollywood viewer but give me something more than some shallow musings on "someone exists because you remember them" and about princesses being too sensitive. Any way you cut it, under any sympathetic light you might want to view the film it fails miserably and that's because of the flat, dirt poor story and characterisation.It's more than obvious that the director and writer are clueless when it comes to prostitution and that's why this is reduced to boring stereotypes.Unfortunately very few real prostitutes rise from the gutter to tell their story. Let me rephrase that because I 've read some wonderful insightful books about prostitution from prostitutes. Very few real prostitutes actually get that big chunk of money to make a film. I tell you whatever little contact I had with working girls as a man, some of those short rushed discussions were far more honest and heartbreaking than any of this boring trite. Let's be frank prostitution exists because men are horny and men have power, and prostitutes do what they do because some of them are lazy and want an easy way out, and most of them have been abused and are tortured souls, they are also poor girls and some are stupid girls. It's not a happy subject matter because it reflects on the atrocious nature of people, mostly men. It might not even be an interesting matter. But if you are going to tackle it, there's stuff there for sure, if you are to make a movie of it there's so much there to avoid banality and clichés. The sheer number of which here are mind blowing. But of course that's happens when people with money make films about issues they have neither the sensitivity nor the intellect to handle, and that they've not lived through for sure. So we get clichés: hiv, the bad pimp, the junkie, the college kid, the immigrant, uuuggghhh...And what's with 15 manu chao songs in a single film? Straight from an "anti globalisation" march.