Review of Bad Education (2004) by Voskhozhdeniye — 17 Oct 2011

It was too complex in that I could not understand what the film meant. I could not assemble it for myself to one striking meaning. The characters go off in different directions without taking me to one destination, so to speak.

The use of the Super 8 was very clever (and disturbing). The mise-en-scene and lighting were often classic noir, direct. The metafiction and the emotion that followed were done well. Almodovar has a lot of ideas, but if we see a convergence of features in this work, or just a fireworks display of cinematography, I have to say the latter. But this is one of the most interesting films I have seen from a narrative structure point of view, and I would recommend others to see it. One gets the sense that this was a deeply felt film from the writer/director's point of view. I wonder very much how this work could be condensed, how this meta-fictional structure could apply elsewhere to a more powerful effect.