agmtw logo
search
Bad Education (2004)

Bad Education (2004)

A brazen, stylish twist to the classic murder mystery

7.8

Movie

Spain
Latin, Spanish
Crime, Drama
2004
PEDRO ALMODÓVAR
Agustín Almodóvar, Alberto Ferreiro, Daniel Giménez Cacho
106 min

TLDR

It’s actually insane how layered this film is.

What it's about

Madrid, 1980. Looking for his next project, struggling film director Enrique Goded is surprised by an unexpected visit from actor Angel Andrade, who claims to have been his first love Ignacio Rodriguez. Andrade has brought along a short story titled The Visit, inspired by their Catholic boarding school experience in the 1960s.

The take

There’s a cyclical tragedy at the heart of Bad Education, that starts with love, then continues in separation, and ends with hoping to redeem one’s self, and it would have felt repetitive if it wasn’t for the metafictional framing of Pedro Almodóvar. It boldly tackles the sexual abuse occurring in Catholic boarding schools, from which Almodóvar was educated under. It also explores it through a series of brilliant twists, as each reveal essentially repeats again and again, with each remix increasing the stakes, weaving a new layer to the love triangle, and exacerbating the consequences. Bad Education blends Enrique’s, and perhaps Almodóvar’s, life with fiction, with the brilliance and style Almodóvar is best known for.

What stands out

The multiple plot twists with each new narrator.

Comments

Add a comment

Your name

Your comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

Open Your Eyes (1997)

The startlingly surreal Spanish psychothriller that inspired modern cult classic Vanilla Sky

8.0

Contratiempo (2016)

8.0

Victoria (2015)

Filmed in one continuous take and in real time on the streets of Berlin, ‘Victoria’ immerses the viewer in a heart-stopping drama

9.8

Fruitvale Station (2013)

Compassionate filmmaking reconstructing a 24-hour police brutality story – with a stunning lead by Michael B. Jordan

9.7

The Platform (2019)

If Parasite was too tame for you

7.0

Nowhere (2023)

A riveting Spanish Netflix survival thriller brought to life in Anna Castillo’s performance

7.8

Babylon (2022)

An intoxicating and lavishly designed experience of Hollywood hedonism

8.0

Everybody Knows (2018)

A Spanish movie from the Iranian director of A Separation

7.2

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Martin Scorsese grapples with harrowing history and the limits of storytelling in this monumental masterpiece

8.2

Stand and Deliver (1988)

An inspirational, if a bit embellished, depiction of a maverick math teacher

7.4

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.