Bad Education

2004

Bad Education

Critics Consensus

A layered, wonderfully-acted, and passionate drama.

88%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 145

86%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 46,218

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Movie Info

Two children, Ignacio and Enrique, know love, the movies and fear in a religious school at the beginning of the 60's. Father Manolo, director of the school and its professor of literature, is witness to and part of these discoveries. The three are followed through the next few decades, their reunion marking life and death.
  • Rating:
    NC17 (for a scene of explicit sexual content)
  • Genre:
    Art House & International, Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Romance
  • Directed By:
    Pedro Almodóvar
  • Written By:
    Pedro Almodóvar
  • In Theaters:
     wide
  • On Disc/Streaming:
  • Box Office:
    $4,977,869
  • Runtime:
  • Studio:
    Sony Pictures Classics

Cast

Gael García Bernal
as Angel/Juan/Zahara
Fele Martínez
as Enrique Goded
Daniel Giménez Cacho
as Father Manolo
Lluis Homar
as Mr. Berenguer
Francisco Boira
as Ignacio
Javier Cámara
as Paca
Petra Martínez
as Ignacio's Mother
Francisco Maestre
as Father Jose
Juan Fernández
as Martin
Nacho Pérez
as Young Ignacio
Ignacio Perez
as Young Ignacio
Raul Garcia Forneiro
as Young Enrique
Alberto Ferreiro
as Enrique Serrano
Leonor Watling
Roberto Hoyas
as Galicia's Barman
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View All

Critic Reviews for Bad Education

All Critics (145) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (127) | Rotten (18)

  • The problem with the film is its very staginess -- it never really seems to get out of drag. Between the impersonations of the priesthood, the impersonations of the transvestites and the impersonations of the actors themselves, there is little to choose.

    January 9, 2018 | Full Review…

    Will Self

    London Evening Standard
    Top Critic

  • Like a Chinese box, it has layers under layers, fictions within fictions. A mystery and an intricate triangular love story, it's also a tale about storytelling itself, the uses of art and artifice to make the unbearable bearable.

    November 1, 2007 | Full Review…

    David Ansen

    Newsweek
    Top Critic

  • In accounting for Almodvar's identity as an artist and a man, Bad Education comes together like a bold and far-reaching summation of his career to date.

    September 26, 2005

    Scott Tobias

    AV Club
    Top Critic

  • It still exerts an uncanny power: Like the best of Almodvar's work, it throws you a first-love sucker punch that will stagger your heart, mind, and soul.

    February 27, 2005 | Full Review…

    Logan Hill

    New York Magazine/Vulture
    Top Critic

  • Simple melodrama, a not-that-puzzling puzzle of a film noir.

    February 11, 2005 | Rating: 3/5

    Roger Moore

    Orlando Sentinel
    Top Critic

  • Taken at face value, Bad Education is about molestation, but from a wider perspective, it's about love, loss of innocence and the desperate quest for redemption.

    February 10, 2005 | Rating: 4/5

    Bill Muller

    Arizona Republic
    Top Critic
View All Critic Reviews (145)

Audience Reviews for Bad Education

  • Apr 27, 2012
    I havn't watched many Almodovar films but besides â~Talk to Herâ(TM) I always feel his aesthetic style takes centre stage from any of the emotion of his stories and I felt that this was the case in Bad Education. Still, I will watch more Almodovar hoping to find something that will match Talk to Her
    Hassan V Super Reviewer
  • Sep 17, 2011
    A drag queen convinces a film director to shoot a film about his childhood molestation by a priest. As I'm exploring Almodovar's oeuvre, I'm seeing similar subjects. There is almost always an element of abnormal sexuality, and the several scenes of homosexual sex check that box. Drag queens? Also check. But these are surface elements. The reason I think I'm not diving into Almodovar is that many of his films try to do so much at once. <i>Bad Education</i> is a love story, a noir, a political statement against the clergy's sexual misconduct, and a melodrama, and I think all the "styles" and subject matters collide. What results is such a hodgepodge that I think people are able to attach themselves to elements of the film while ignoring the whole. Overall, <i>Bad Education</I> is for Almodovar fans, and that's about it.
    Jim H Super Reviewer
  • Aug 22, 2011
    A movie you have to watch if you like serious drama, it's so complicated than it seemed. The combination of different philosophical elements was blended really well
    Sylvester K Super Reviewer
  • Feb 20, 2011
    "La mala education" or bad education as we know it better, is the first almodovar film not centered over women. But since he can't get too far from them, he based this movie on dragqueens and gays :) Well this introduction may be quite harsh, because this is a very good movie, and like every almodovar film, it brilliantly succeeds on every aspect. The European genius is always on top of the viewer regarding the mysteries conceded deep within his plots, making all his films highly unpredictable, a characteristic essential for every critic and moviegoer, and for me, the essence of every deep picture. This is the nearest of Pedro almodovar doing an autobiographical portrait of himself, although the film was never commercialized that way. Gael Garcia bernal is not one of the actors I admire, but he succeeded in delivering a good performance in the three roles he's been handed. Not a film for all tastes, but if you're In deep European films, you might not wanna miss this.
    Raja N Super Reviewer
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