Antonio Banderas Is One of the Best Movie Stars of His Generation

“Nobody knew quite what to make of him, or quite what to think … Every step he took toward the light, just as you thought his face was going to be revealed, it wasn’t. It was as if the lights dimmed, just for him.” So speaks Steve Buscemi at the start of Desperado, the 1995 Robert Rodriguez film that first positioned Antonio Banderas as a Hollywood leading man. It’s a thrilling piece of onscreen braggadocio that succeeds because its subject is that cool: The Spanish actor, sporting ludicrously long hair, strides toward the camera, his face bathed in darkness.

By the mid-’90s, Banderas was already well regarded in art-house and European-cinema circles. A favorite of the acclaimed director Pedro Almodóvar, he subverted his good looks and natural charisma to play all kinds of strange, defies easy categorization. Of the movie industry’s ’90s poster boys, he has always been one of the most inventive and daring; here are 10 of his films that illustrate his willingness to take risks and turn even the simplest blockbusters into something unique.