In 1980s countercultural Madrid, three women embark on wild misadventures. Pepi, a layabout, becomes an overnight success in the advertising world. Luci, a housewife, discovers her hidden masochistic side—while Bom is the lesbian punk who teaches Luci to find her pleasure in pain.

Identity, sexuality, the reshaping of life through art—Pedro Almodóvar’s career preoccupations are already in plain sight in his first commercially released feature. Forget the vibrant formal poise of his mature works, Pepi, Luci, Bom is a scuzzy, punk-inflected exercise in filmmaking on the run.