Pedro Almodóvar, that bad boy of Spanish cinema, serves up his third NC-17 rated film in Bad Education (La Mala Educación), a tawdry tale about a couple of lifelong male friends who meet after many years (Enrique’s a movie director scouting for his new film; Ignacio’s an actor looking for work) and, via flashback, reminisce about their childhood, a childhood that included sexual abuse at the hands of their Franco-era religious caretakers. Unlike some of the director’s most mature works (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Live Flesh, and All About My Mother to name a few), Bad Education is a disappointment partly because it’s gay chic is perilously over the top (even for Almodóvar) and it’s condemnation of the Holy and Apostolic Church (including, specifically, its ordained ministers who do with boys) overly familiar. Even Almodóvar, in his defense of the film, claims that had he wanted to make this kind of religio-political statement he wouldn’t have waited 40 years to do it yet here it is, clearly leveled at the Catholic Church-appointed pedophiles of the day (and their contemporary counterparts) and easily semi-autobiographical in nature. Unfortunately Almodóvar’s outrage, whether it be genuine or not, quickly becomes blurred and fuzzy as this homosexual soap opera plays out. And you can be darned sure the MPAA’s “adults only” label simply means it continues to disapprove of gay sex. From the film’s opening credits–bold animation and sawing strings on the soundtrack–we begin a Vertigo-inspired storyline that weaves an intricate web of sex, deception, and questionable identities. If only Almodóvar could have pulled off his latest melodrama without a Hitch.