Review of Bad Education (2004) by Sapphire G — 08 Jul 2010

Brilliant and disturbing and out of this world! It might be my favorite Almodovar film...or at least the most memorable and remarkable (together with "Talk to Her"). One can notice this is his most personal movie. This has to be Gael Garcia Bernal's best performance too, and that's a lot to say since this gorgeous Mexican excels in every film. In "Bad Education" he plays three characters, one of them being a very convincing drag queen. I was surprised by his believable Spanish accent. But then again, maybe Spaniards would disagree. To me it did sound very good.

Although some scenes could result to be a bit graphic and shocking (NC-17) I would advice watching the original uncut edition of this very intense film, it does not disappoint. And it might seem to be shocking only because we are not used to see gay sex represented a bit more graphically than usual. Sharon Stone getting crazy in Basic Instinct is normal, but not this, right? Well, Basic Instinct, with its arbitrary silly story and ending, sucked. This is a remarkable piece of storytelling, of stories inside stories, of reality and fiction. Curiously, but not regrettably, not one female character in the movie (that I can remember); a great turn, considering Almodovar mostly does stories about women. Again, this film is obviously his baby.