It's 1980 Madrid. Enrique Goded is a film director struggling for inspiration. He is paid a surprise visit by Ignacio Rodriguez (Gael García Bernal). He doesn't really recognize his first love whom he hasn't seen for 16 years. Ignacio wants to be called Ángel. He's a struggling actor looking for work. He also brings a story titled "The Visit". It's semi-autobiographical. Enrique doesn't really care about Ignacio anymore but he starts reading the story. In the story, Ignacio is a drag queen called Zahara who blackmails Father Manolo who abused young Ignacio.Gael García Bernal is magnificent. This is a multi-layered movie. Somewhere after the filming finishes on the screen, it got a bit complicated. This is a challenging movie. The subject matter is all Pedro Almodóvar. The complexity also has another layer that is solely for foreign movies. Reading subtitles can add another layer that Almodóvar may not appreciate.

I watched this film a couple times the last 2 days 10/21 10/22 2013. I saw it first time on big screen in my dedicated TV/stereo room a couple years ago. For those not in the know almodovar is Gay and many of his movies concern gay subject matter. For the Right Wing conservative crowd Evangelists Fundamentalists and non liberated I do not recommend this movie. It is a very dark tale about child abuse homosexuality drag queens movie making and transsexuals. For the ordinary family and or parents of children I don't recommend either. This is a pretty shocking film. But I still love it and Love all almodovar films because they are so very unique. (and many of his films cover subject matter never before considered for film and most are quite shocking) I would write a longer review not but keep this one short. The movie is typical almodovar. Some claimed cinematography was average or poor. I disagree. Like almost all almodovar films this one plays fine and scenes cinematography is fine. the plot is very complicated. film about a book about and the film is in the making and the film is actually presented within the film. Don't get to wrapped up in the plot or what it means. Watch it a couple of times (no distractions) and all will be revealed. really the film is quite clever and outright funny in places (for being such a dark subject matter movie ) 4 stars.

La mala educación is a dark film concerning the long-term effects of pederasty in the priesthood. The sexual abuse of one young boy, Ignacio, affects the lives of all of the characters. The storyline is very disjointed and confusing which complements the confusing subject matter.The key elements in this film are desire, unrequited love, and the willingness to do anything to accomplish goals. Many of the characters in the film are not good people. One is a pederastic priest, another a desperate junkie, but the worst of all is Angél, a young actor who is willing to go to unbelievable lengths to get what he wants. He is guilty of many transgressions, including deception, manipulation, assuming his dead brother's identity, and murder. Gael García Bernal, the actor that plays Angél, is the glue that holds the film together. His portrayal is simultaneously bone chilling and heartbreaking.I believe that Enrique Goded, the young gay film maker is a reference to Pedro Almodóvar. He is the most human of the characters. He is not a monster. He is the victim of the beautiful and determined Angél.Neither the cinematography nor the soundtrack is remarkable. The costumes are appropriate to the late 1970's and do not lend nor distract from the film at large. As in most Almodóvar films, the most developed aspect is the acting. This film lacks one of Almodóvar's common themes of women banding together. While such a relationship would not make sense in the film, it seems empty without it.

Bad Education is an interesting and dark crime film by Pedro Almodovar. This film has many layers and various dimensions of a story; stories of obsession, role-playing, and revenge. Almodovar's mis-en-scene was the excellent use of bright colors which helped the scenes pop from the screen. These colors were used as a vibrant explosion that helped in the dramatic effect of the stories this film presented. He also used excellent cinematography to lead his audience into this mysterious, bizarre world where graphic simulation of sexual acts was used. When viewing this film, the audience will notice that it is impossible not to get lost in the story played by the characters, because Almodovar augments the width of the image to where the audience will not notice the dimensions of fiction and reality.As a viewer of this film, I began to notice several themes. The first theme I noticed was the theme of indifferent attitudes toward women because there were no significant women's parts or roles played in this film, besides the role played in drag. Another theme is that of false identity - the movie's present tense is the 1980s, where a film director Enrique is searching desperately for a new project, hoping to find it by clipping through newspapers, when a young actor comes into his office with a story he's written. The young actor claims to be Ignacio, the boy Enrique fell in love with while they were in a Roman Catholic boarding school together. Although Enrique wanted to believe it to be true, he knew that something was not right. Enrique would eventually find out that Ignacio was not who he thought he was but played with the thought anyway; the theme of falling in love was also prominent in this film as it was shown - the Priest falls in love with Ignacio and the love between two young boys. In the end, as a reviewer, I enjoyed all the different art forms that this film presented. The art of mis-en-scene, the art of realism versus fictional and the art of love.