Bad Education

Bad Education (Spanish: La mala educación, also meaning 'bad manners') is a 2004 Spanish neo-noir psychological melodrama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Starring Gael García Bernal, Fele Martínez, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Lluís Homar and Francisco Boira, the film focuses on two reunited childhood friends and lovers caught up in a stylized murder mystery. The protagonist was inspired by Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley, as portrayed by Alain Delon in René Clément’s Purple Noon (Plein Soleil). The metafictional film uses a deeply-nested narrative plot structure to explore themes of transsexuality, drug use, rape, and sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The film received an NC-17 rating in the United States for "A Scene Of Explicit Sexual Content". The film was released on 19 March 2004 in Spain and 10 September 2004 in Mexico. It was also screened at many international film festivals such as Cannes, New York, Moscow and Toronto before its US release on 19 November 2004. The film received critical acclaim, and was seen as a return to Almodovar's dark stage, placing it alongside films such as Matador (1986) and Law of Desire (1987).