by Nathaniel R
Gael García Bernal as "Juan & Ignacio & Angel & Zahara" simultaneously.
Heads up that I had the beautiful opportunity to talk Pedro Almodóvar as the guest on this week's Water Cooler podcast over at Awards Daily. It was a true pleasure to revisit his twisty provocative melodrama Bad Education (2004). Almodóvar movies nearly always improve on revisits (and they're great the first time so that's quite a feat). My theory is that it's because they're often so novelistic and twisty with plot and layered with meaning. That's true of this trans noir in particular as it's a movie (period drama - but are they flashbacks or the fictional movie?) within a movie (scripted/filming) within a movie. Multiple actors play the same roles... only not exactly. The head spins. The pulse races (Gael García Bernal looks ...um... good... in wet underwear) Longtime readers may recall that Bernal was nominated at TFE for Best Actor that year. He's playing multiple characters in a way that's both intentionally performative and cleverly obfuscated. It's a pretty remarkable star turn and it's tragic that Pedro and Gael never worked together again! Give it a listen.