Bad Education

Drama, Thriller

Gael García Bernal	Ángel/Juan/Zahara
Fele Martínez	Enrique Goded
Daniel Giménez Cacho	Father Manolo
Lluís Homar	Sr. Manuel Berenguer
Javier Cámara	Paca/Paquito
Petra Martínez	Mother
Nacho Pérez	Young Ignacio
Raúl García Forneiro	Young Enrique
Francisco Boira	Ignacio
Juan Fernandez	Martín
Juan Fernández (XIII)
Alberto Ferreiro
Roberto Hoyas
Gael Garcia Bernal
Fele Martinez
Daniel Gimenez Cacho
Lluis Homar
Francisco Maestre	Padre José
Juan Fernández	Martín

Director	Pedro Almodóvar; Pedro Almodovar
Producer	Agustin Almodovar; Agustín Almodóvar; Pedro Almodóvar; Esther Garcia
Writer	Pedro Almodóvar; Pedro Almodovar
Cinematography	José Luis Alcaine
Musician	Alberto Iglesias

Writer/director Pedro Almodóvar's dark, sexy Hitchcock homage is his best work since his Oscar-winning All About My Mother, and deepened by a sun-dappled sadness. Handsome, enigmatic Ángel (Gael García Bernal) arrives at the Spanish movie offices of director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) and happily proclaims that he's actually Enrique's long-lost school chum Ignacio--an announcement that is both less than convincing and more than it seems. A novice actor, Ángel pitches a semi-autobiographical screenplay in which he's determined to star, a revenge-laden reflection of the doomed love he and Enrique shared as boys before a pedophile priest cruelly intervened. The script, and the lost days it recalls, carefully unfurls into a series of brooding movies-within-movies and memories-inside-memories, which allow the sensual, multiple-role-playing Bernal to give the performance of his young career--among other things, he makes a stunningly convincing drag queen--and Almodóvar the opportunity to movingly suggest that people will pay any price to ensure that their stories are told. --Steve Wiecking