Bad Education (2004)

This is pretty well little more than soft porn movie dressed up as a deep insight into the relationship between two men who went to a typical Catholic school in Spain in the sixties. The photography is wonderful - Ozu is at the root - but explicit scenes of homosexuals engaging in sodomy and oral sex simply repel. It is the fashion to show sex and violence in extremes on the screen. It makes money because both sex and violence require constant feeding. And it can be argued that a fantasy, which is all a film is, might be a way of dealing with such privative needs. There is no doubt the director is more than capable and the acting, when not faking a sexual act, is capable. The child actors, on the other hand, do not come any better. This reviewer is of an older generation when it was thought that leaving sexual acts and extreme violence better suggested. Like I say, soft porn in spite of the dressing.

Another brilliant Almodovar film, with its gritty, transvestite, scenes and very plasticly shot, like all brilliant Almodovar films, though not as good as Talk to her, on a weired way.A must see for all Almodovar lovers, (the best director, in my opinion), Personally I would like to see him using these brilliant actors more, and also, on a tangent use Javier Bardem more (the best actor, in my opinion) This film had a bit of everything, and a large bit of that twisted Almodovar brain in it.A tasty bit of film, with a bit of sex scenes and a feeling left of mystery in the story from start to finish.A clear 8/10 and a must see.

Bad Education is an interesting and dark crime film by Pedro Almodovar. This film has many layers and various dimensions of a story; stories of obsession, role-playing, and revenge. Almodovar's mis-en-scene was the excellent use of bright colors which helped the scenes pop from the screen. These colors were used as a vibrant explosion that helped in the dramatic effect of the stories this film presented. He also used excellent cinematography to lead his audience into this mysterious, bizarre world where graphic simulation of sexual acts was used. When viewing this film, the audience will notice that it is impossible not to get lost in the story played by the characters, because Almodovar augments the width of the image to where the audience will not notice the dimensions of fiction and reality.As a viewer of this film, I began to notice several themes. The first theme I noticed was the theme of indifferent attitudes toward women because there were no significant women's parts or roles played in this film, besides the role played in drag. Another theme is that of false identity - the movie's present tense is the 1980s, where a film director Enrique is searching desperately for a new project, hoping to find it by clipping through newspapers, when a young actor comes into his office with a story he's written. The young actor claims to be Ignacio, the boy Enrique fell in love with while they were in a Roman Catholic boarding school together. Although Enrique wanted to believe it to be true, he knew that something was not right. Enrique would eventually find out that Ignacio was not who he thought he was but played with the thought anyway; the theme of falling in love was also prominent in this film as it was shown - the Priest falls in love with Ignacio and the love between two young boys. In the end, as a reviewer, I enjoyed all the different art forms that this film presented. The art of mis-en-scene, the art of realism versus fictional and the art of love.

This is an astounding, captivating movie, although I have to admit I didn't fully understand it, at least not at the first viewing. It's the type of movie that is complex and demanding and constantly switches back and forth, and it's still a pleasure to watch (not just an intellectual exercises). And it deals with transvestites and homosexuality and pedophilia and you can still watch it with your mother. It's so driven by the story that it still sucks you in. Pedro Almodovar takes you for a ride you had no idea you could be interested in.I'd recommend this to anyone who's interest goes beyond action movies, and don't be put off by the subject matter or the movie's "art house cinema" status.