Bad Education explores noir

Drag queens, drug addicts and priests with a liking for young boys fill Pedro Almoduvar's latest release, Bad Education, but audiences are nothing but thrilled with the release of another controversial and thought provoking film.

Almoduvar's first film in two years, Bad Education (La Mala Educaciun) tells the story of two boys in the early '60s, Ignacio Rodriguez (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez), who encounter love and fear while growing up and their lives twenty years later.

The audience is first introduced to Enrique, a flourishing gay film director, when his childhood friend Ignacio comes to visit. When they attended school together as boys at their strict Catholic school, the two boys were in love.

However, Enrique was also being romantically pursued by the principal and literature teacher Father Manolo (Lluis Homar).

Years later the two are reunited when Ignacio gives Enrique a story he has written in hopes of Enrique making a movie from it.

The story is an exact recollection of their childhood together, but with a fictional ending. Enrique decides to use the story for his next movie, and consents to cast Ignacio in a leading role.

As filming progresses, Enrique begins to notice odd things about Ignacio, which lead him to investigate past events and Ignacio's identity.

After waiting nearly two years for Bad Education to be released, Almoduvar has surprised viewers by once again plunging into a new genre, which in this case is film noir.

The femme fatale that every film noir must have is in this case an homme fatale, and Ignacio fills the role adequately. Enrique's character seems to be loosely based on Almoduvar himself in the 1980s.

Although Almoduvar has a clear opinion of the events which occur in the film, he never preaches to the audience but continues to poke fun at the Catholic church throughout the movie.

While this twisting tale of love, lust, betrayal and lies starts off with powerful momentum, the final revelations of the film are met with a general disinterest and lack of excitement.

Not a film for those who are wary of controversial ideas (or subtitles), one should be warned of its NC-17 rating, though do not let the rating discourage viewing.

Yet another beautiful and provocative film from Almoduvar, his loyal followers will be satisfied, and he will also be able to recruit new enthusiasts into his magical realm of Spanish film.