BAD EDUCATION

Any film my Pedro Almadovar has to be treated as something of an event. And the NC=l7 rated BAD EDUCATION is no exception. Magnificently designed and intricatly plotted, the film is almost too clever for its own good. The film within a film takes sexual abuse by /catholic clergy for granted, and builds a never not fascinating story around it. In fact it is so self=referential, oblique references to the early LAW OF DESIRE, with Antonio Banderos getting butt-fucked for at least l0 minutes, it seems almost autobiographical. And, of course, there are the ironies of the characters from real life not being as attractive or interesting as the ones who are cast in the movie.

But, as involving as BAD EDUCATION can be, it often feels like a high grade Coen Brothers movie. Just as the Coen brothers finally got around to creating characters whom one could care about in MILLER'S CROSSING, so had the measurably more talented Almadovar done o with TALK TO HER (which I saw three times in a month) So BAD EDUCATION, having ts biographical origins in pain and creativity, is so caught up in its cleverness that it never bothers to develop characters that one truly cares about

Nevertheless, it is one of the must=see films of the season from one of the world's major directors.