Bad Education (2004)

The film constructs a complex narrative that intertwines clerical sexual abuse with the normalization of homosexuality and transvestism. The protagonist, a victim of abuse in his childhood, reappears as a transvestite in same-sex relationships presented with naturalness. The work uses the legitimate pain of abuse (a topic that merits denunciation) as a vehicle to validate, without critical distance, a vision of sexuality contrary to human nature. The NC-17 rating is not coincidental: there are explicit sex scenes between men that exceed the narrative drama and enter soft-pornographic territory. The criticism of the Church, although founded on the real horror of abuse, is directed against the institution itself rather than against the sin of the abuser. Almodóvar skillfully employs cinematic language — the film within the film, the temporal shifts — but that technical mastery does not change the underlying content. It is not a work for families nor for minors. Nor for adults without a formed judgment who seek to understand clerical abuse without accepting the gender agenda as a premise.