Review of Bad Education (2004) by Tasha W — 06 May 2008

I'm not sure if it was my then target audience of Jamaican college students or my burgeoning sensibilities with regards to foreign cinema at the time that led to me brushing off this film as "two money shots away from soft core gay porn".

On second viewing, however, I was able to savor the intricacies of this elaborately convoluted story within a story weaved by Pedro Almodovar, a true auteur in every sense of the word. Elements of film noir, comedy, and drama blend together to create a fascinating and suspenseful tale of guilt, sin and desire.

Gael Garcia Bernal, a veritable chameleon in the vein of American contemporaries such as Johnny Depp, successfully stretches his acting abilities, playing not one, not two, but three different characters, in the process reminding me of why I fell in love with him as an actor after seeing him for the first time in Amores Perros.