Bad Education (2004 film)
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 metafictional film uses a deeply-nested narrative plot structure to explore themes of transsexuality, drug use, rape, and sexual abuse by Catholic priests.Ignacio, who is now using the name Ángel Andrade, has brought along a short story titled "The Visit", hoping that Enrique would be interested in filming it—and giving him the starring role.Enrique is intrigued since "The Visit" describes their time together at the Catholic boarding school, while also including a fictional account of their reunion years later as adults.Zahara plans to rob a drunken admirer but discovers that the man is her boyhood lover Enrique Serrano, so she defiles him in his sleep instead.[9] At the end of its North American theatrical run (its widest release being in 106 venues), the film had grossed $5,211,842 in the United States and Canada, and $35,062,088 overseas ($7,356,224 in its home country of Spain), making $40,273,930 worldwide.[11] Ann Hornaday from The Washington Post wrote, "To watch Bad Education is to revel, along with Almodóvar, in the power of cinema to take us on journeys of breathtaking mystery and dimension and beauty."[5] Marjorie Baumgarten from the Austin Chronicle wrote "With Bad Education, the great Almodóvar delivers the finest movie of his career.