Golden Balls

1993 | 95 minutes | 5.5 ★ (83)

Golden Balls

Videos

User Reviews

See more
CC

CRCulver

23 June 2021

Bigas Luna's 1993 film <i>Huevos de oro</i> ("Golden Balls/Eggs", a title punning on both the goose that laid the golden eggs and a tough guy's balls of steel) depicts the rise and fall of Benito Gonzalez (Javier Bardem), a young Spanish construction worker who becomes an affluent real estate developer on the Mediterranean coast. After being jilted by his first girlfriend (Elisa Tovati), who leaves him for his best friend, Benito develops a mania for building the tallest building in Benidorm, which may be seen as little more than an enormous phallic symbol flaunting his manhood. Obsessed with this big construction project, his lust for his next woman, Claudia (Maribel Verdú) takes second place to having her sleep with potential investors to win them over. Benito then marries a banker's daughter, Marta (Maria de Medeiros) to have access to her father's funds. Benito lives a life of sexual excess and enormous consumption of food, especially the Alicante sweet known as torrón. Like some of the work of Almodovar, Bigas Luna clearly likes riffing on Spanish stereotypes and regional differences. Ultimately, however, Benito's hubris leads to his downfall. This protagonist is certainly an odious guy, but -- though I won't spoil the ending -- the depths to which he is ultimately sunk inspire a perverse sympathy in the viewer. Years went by between my first viewing of this film and the second, but in the interim I would often look back on this film's plot and ending scenes, thinking of how sad it was to lose everything and end up that way. <i>Huevos de oro</i> isn't an especially deep film, but that dramatic arc, hewing very close to classical notions of tragedy, is impressive and I'd say this film is worth a watch.

More Like This

Snapshot Fiasco

Snapshot Fiasco

A model and a photographer, after hours of trying, strive for the perfect shot but face challenges as their high aesthetic standards get in the way.

See more
Nobel Son

Nobel Son

Soon after his insufferably arrogant father wins the Nobel Prize for chemistry, Barkley Michaelson is kidnapped by Thaddeus James, a young genius...

See more
Incendiary

Incendiary

A woman's life is torn apart when her husband and infant son are killed in a suicide bombing at a soccer match.

See more
The Death King

The Death King

Seven episodes, each taking place on a different day of the week, on the theme of suicide and violent death.

See more
What Doesn't Kill You

What Doesn't Kill You

Two childhood friends from South Boston turn to crime as a way to get by, ultimately causing a strain in their personal lives and their friendship.

See more
Tokyo Decadence

Tokyo Decadence

A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is...

See more
It's Not Good for a Man to Be Alone

It's Not Good for a Man to Be Alone

Martín is a tormented and solitary man who hides a shameful and unspeakable secret: he lives with a life-size doll which he treats as if it were...

See more
Basquiat

Basquiat

The brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.

See more
The Cuckoo

The Cuckoo

September of 1944, a few days before Finland went out of the Second World War. A chained to a rock Finnish sniper-kamikadze Veikko managed to set...

See more
Secret Beyond the Door...

Secret Beyond the Door...

After a whirlwind romance in Mexico, a beautiful heiress marries a man she barely knows with hardly a second thought. She finds his New York home...

See more
The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others

In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the Stasi secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly...

See more
Titanic

Titanic

101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and...

See more
Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket

A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to...

See more
Out of Africa

Out of Africa

Tells the life story of Danish author Karen Blixen, who at the beginning of the 20th century moved to Africa to build a new life for herself. The...

See more
Wild Strawberries

Wild Strawberries

Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his pregnant and unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to...

See more
A Fish Called Wanda

A Fish Called Wanda

While a diamond advocate attempts to steal a collection of diamonds, troubles arise when he realises he’s not the only one after the collection.

See more
Bridget Jones's Diary

Bridget Jones's Diary

Bridget Jones is an average woman struggling against her age, her weight, her job, her lack of a man, and her various imperfections. As a New...

See more
Lost Highway

Lost Highway

A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible...

See more
Requiem for a Dream

Requiem for a Dream

The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.

See more
Meu Último Ano

Meu Último Ano

A year in the life of Bernardo, a young call boy who has recently been through a major trauma. Through clients and acquaintances, his past and his...

See more