A glossy, twisty melodrama that blends queer desire, Catholic guilt, childhood trauma, and noir-like suspense into one of Almodóvar’s most intricate films. It’s emotionally charged, formally playful, and built around revelations that keep recontextualizing everything you’ve seen.
84% ★★★★☆ (180,103)
Bad Education
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Drama · Crime · NC-17
2004 · 1h 45m · ★ 84% (180.1K)
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Gael García Bernal, Fele Martínez, Daniel Giménez Cacho
Overview
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. Weaving through past and present, the script follows a transvestite performer who reconnects with a grade school sweetheart. Spurred on by this chance encounter, the character reflects on her childhood sexual victimization and the trauma of closeting her sexual orientation.
Director
Pedro Almodóvar
Production
El Deseo
Cast
Gael García Bernal, Fele Martínez, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Lluís Homar, Francisco Maestre, Francisco Boira, Juan Fernández, Nacho Pérez, Raúl García Forneiro, Javier Cámara, Alberto Ferreiro, Petra Martínez, Sandra, Roberto Hoyas, Agustín Almodóvar, Robert Forcadell, Luis Lobos Negros, Pol Monen, Sara Montiel, Pau Poch
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, twisty melodrama that blends queer desire, Catholic guilt, childhood trauma, and noir-like suspense into one of Almodóvar’s most intricate films. It’s emotionally charged, formally playful, and built around revelations that keep recontextualizing everything you’ve seen.
Best for
fans of queer melodrama and taboo subjects
viewers who like nonlinear narratives and layered flashbacks
people drawn to stylish, emotionally heightened cinema
audiences interested in Catholic guilt, repression, and identity
Skip if
you want a straightforward crime story
you dislike sexual content or themes of abuse
you prefer naturalistic acting and restrained emotion
you are looking for a light or easy watch
Overview
Bad Education is one of those films that feels both seductive and dangerous, constantly shifting between confession, performance, and manipulation. Almodóvar turns a story about memory and desire into a puzzle box, where the act of telling the story becomes as important as the story itself. The result is lush, melodramatic, and deliberately unstable in a way that rewards attention.
Worth noting
What gives it staying power is the way it connects private trauma to institutional hypocrisy. The Catholic school setting, the closeted adolescence, and the adult reinvention all feed into a larger portrait of shame and survival. It’s also one of Almodóvar’s most overtly Hitchcockian works, using suspense and identity games to sharpen the emotional impact rather than distract from it.
Bottom line
The film can feel excessive by design, but that excess is part of its intelligence. It’s a movie about people performing versions of themselves, and about the damage done when desire has to hide in plain sight. Stylish, tragic, and slyly funny, it’s a strong pick for viewers who like their melodrama with real bite.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Toni (4.5★) · 2456 likes
Gael García Bernal in homoerotic movies is my absolute kink
Cevin Kookman (3.5★) · 2397 likes
May be the most Hitchcockian Almodóvar, emphasis on the cock.
zachhayes (5★) · 1888 likes
Gael: *doing those push-ups* me: Poetic Cinema™
brono (3.5★) · 1359 likes
when you watch almodovar’s catalog, you realize how he loves -men bodies-red tones-plot twists-an obsessive/passionate character
Merkin Muffley (3.5★) · 1344 likes
I’m a hedonist. That means I like to have fun. I read it in the encyclopedia.