Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
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.
Almodóvar's La mala educación is a densely layered noir-melodrama that operates on multiple narrative levels simultaneously—film-within-film, past-within-present, identity-within-identity. The plot is intricately constructed, weaving sexual trauma, Catholic guilt, and artistic creation into a Hitchcockian labyrinth that rewards close attention. Gael García Bernal's chameleonic performance anchors the film's shifting identities with remarkable conviction, and the supporting cast matches his intensity. Almodóvar's cinematography, led by José Luis Alcaine, is lush and painterly—vivid reds and golds that evoke both desire and danger in classic Almodóvar fashion. Novelty is extremely high: few films so audaciously blend melodrama, noir, and meta-fictional autobiography while interrogating how trauma shapes identity and art. The ending, while thematically coherent and morally resonant, feels slightly abrupt and less emotionally cathartic than the richly layered buildup deserves, preventing a full emotional payoff.