Bad Education (2004) review

An actor (Gael Garcia Bernal) meets with a director about his screenplay based on their "past life" with a pervy priest, but it seems the actor is not who he says he is - the plot is made more complicated than necessary by Almodóvar's jumbled presentation, and aside from the decision to stick with an all-male cast (the "women" are cross-dressers or transsexuals), it lacks the ingenuity and humor of his better work. Taking on pedophile priests (an easy target) reeks of sensationalism, and the NC-17 for this - like the NC-17 for Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! - is not at all warranted (it had to have gotten it on a technicality, like "Hey, he picked a pube out of his mouth" or something equally inane). The score reminds me of Bernard Herrmann's work for Hitchcock, but Almodóvar should have studied the Master a little closer and remembered to include a single character who deserves redemption and/or isn't shady, corrupt or a diva.