Bad Education is a 2004 Spanish drama 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. 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 its depiction of homosexual sex.
