Our 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 it won
Cannes
1 nom
Nat. Board of Review
1 nom
The story
When an old friend brings filmmaker Enrique Goded a semi-autobiographical script chronicling their adolescence, Enrique is forced to relive his youth spent at a Catholic boarding school.
Elsewhere
"It still exerts an uncanny power: Like the best of Almodvar's work, it throws you a first-love sucker punch that will stagger your heart, mind, and soul."
— Logan Hill
"If Americans are allowed to see this film they may well conclude that the mature Almodvar is now ready to take his place alongside the great Buuel."
— Alan A. Stone
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 multiple plot twists with each new narrator.
It’s actually insane how layered this film is.
The details
All About My Mother
Pedro Almodóvar
Amores Perros
Alejandro G. Iñárritu & Alejandro González Iñárritu
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky
Argentina, 1985
Santiago Mitre
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Pedro Almodóvar
We the Animals
Jeremiah Zagar
Half Nelson
Ryan Fleck
Contratiempo
Oriol Paulo
Who picked it
Isabella Endrinal is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. She's now free from the corporate night shift. Previous articles have been published in outlets such as NANG Magazine. She's currently catching up on some classic films… if she isn't coping with the fact that the Haikyu anime will end soon.
