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Critics Consensus: A layered, wonderfully-acted, and passionate drama.
Critic Consensus: A layered, wonderfully-acted, and passionate drama.
All Critics (143) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (125) | Rotten (18) | DVD (9)
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.
In accounting for Almodóvar's identity as an artist and a man, Bad Education comes together like a bold and far-reaching summation of his career to date.
It still exerts an uncanny power: Like the best of Almodóvar's work, it throws you a first-love sucker punch that will stagger your heart, mind, and soul.
Simple melodrama, a not-that-puzzling puzzle of a film noir.
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.
Even though Bad Education ultimately seems to escape the director's control, there is no small amount of enjoyment in getting lost in its sexual-philosophical house of mirrors.
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.
If Americans are allowed to see this film they may well conclude that the mature Almodóvar is now ready to take his place alongside the great Buñuel.
Tragic story of church's betrayal; adults only.
A dazzling autobiographical blend of Almodovar's career, childhood, and adoration & admiration for the cinema.
...Almodovar's meta-movie teases us with Big Ideas about those of us who love our fantasies so much that we turn them into our realities.
An original story told by one of the best contemporary filmmakers, Bad Education is a mesmerizing movie experience.
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. Bad Education 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, Bad Education is for Almodovar fans, and that's about it.
Super Reviewer
An amazing mystery/revenge story. I was totally blown away with the complex nature of the film. Almodovar's style really shines in this, due to the fact that he strayed from his usual upbeat tone and really went with something dark. Gael Garcia Bernal was great and made the movie all the more enjoyable, convincing me that his character was much less horrible than he should've been. I really appreciate the bold choices used, if only more filmmakers were this brave. The director's cut is definitely a step up in terms of what shocking content was meant to be seen, it made me fall in love with it even more.
Murder, mayhem, transvestites and child molesting priests. I wonder where Pedro Almodóvar gets such wild ideas for his stories? Are they autobiographical? Are they plucked from Spanish tabloids? They seem to be coherent presentations of utter chaos. The man is twisted (but brilliant!).
So, Ssabee, I notice nothing in your comments that answers the most important question in the movie: beard or no beard? As Gael Garcia's number-one fan club president, I figured this would be the first thing you'd comment on : )
There is no doubt in my mind that Gael Garcia is a good-looking young man, but after seeing this Almodóvar outing -- no pun intended -- I can definitely affirm that Gael Garcia is also absolutely one of the most frighteningly beautiful young women Almodovar has delivered to the screen.
Hey, if you're young and have all the time in the world to wade through this narrative morass, more power to you. Me, I'm way too old to care that much about something this ugly. I don't know if Almodovar's treatment of homosexuals is worse than his treatment of transvestites in this project, but I really don't care. It's beyond grotesque.
Miss this one if you don't have all the time in the world left to watch movies.
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