Awright, I’ve been sitting on this entry for nearly a week, wanted to do the film justice…got lazy; better post this flawed wrap-up before it gets old…

Scene of the Crime:

Loews Cineplex Odeon Dupont 5

Saturday, January 15, 2005

That Cineplex Odeon Dupont is the only venue in the District screening Bad Education is a low down crying shame.  Bad move, and an indictment on Loews, once again illustrating their on-going failure to fully tap into the area’s cosmopolitan and educated film-going market.   Pedro Almodovar’s films have long established a  loyal and guaranteed audience in the area, and the year-long state-side buzz for La Mala Educación – if only the theater owners read the New York Times – should have been a !!! for whatever fool in charge of setting up venues.

Given the local demographic, naturally, of course, Dupont should be one of the theatres playing the film, but the folks upstairs at Loews should have been wise to market and secured a larger venue in the city as well, because cramming the opening weekend rush of a widely anticipated release into two sub-standard shoe-box size screening rooms ain’t gonna cut it.  Especially when you got throngs of folk turned away into the cold from a way sold-out show (or, in the screening I went to, oversold; ticket holders were still milling about in the dark for non-existent seats after the feature started – is this the third world, what, do they sit on the floor?).  And this was a morning matinee.

And, and this is important, Loews Cineplex people:

If one said management company is stupid enough to book the year’s most highly anticipated foreign release into only one notoriously craptacular (but appreciated – don’t close down please!) theater, make sure the sound system is working. I know y’all cheat on your bulbs and dim it down to save money.  Whatever. I know your (few remaining) smaller neighborhood theaters are clumsily designed.  But I don’t care because I’m glad they are still there.  And showing the kind of films you’re showing.  But, please, please, please make sure all the equipment is running alright before you sell out a screening.  And if you know the stuff isn’t working (which you did) in Theater One, then cancel the show and get yr equipment fixed pronto. 

Because no paying customer deserves to experience jarring static and sub-par garbled audio during the previews, much less through the first quarter of the film! Dozens of people left their coveted seats to complain. We learned it was ongoing problem with the left-hand side speaker system. It was really excruciating and almost everyone wanted to walk out and demand a refund except that we’d all made time in our day and scored tickets to a film that we really wanted to see and plus we didn’t want to lose our precious seats since vultures were still about.  You really should have issued us refunds and closed the theater for a while until you fixed it.  Instead, the sold out second show stampeded us as we were leaving.  Really Bad Business, Loews.  Unacceptable. Bad. 

Enjoy the show my ass.

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Alright, lemme come down from that rant.

Despite the unpleasantry of the theater experience, I really dig Bad Education. In fact, I have to see it again at some point, because the starting quarter was so fucked up at Dupont.  The spellbinding graphics of the opening credits warrant a quality big screen re-visit at least.  I actually had low expectations: reviews have been mixed, and to be honest, the sobering Talk to Her was the first Almodovar film that I appreciated rather than wholeheartedly enjoyed and I figured this work continued on that kick.  And I was apprehensive about the well-publicized absence of female characters – Almodovar’s women are so vivid, colorful, nuanced, and wonderful.  But then I figured that the chicks were basically comatose in the last flick. (Maybe that’s why I didn’t like it so much, no?)  I realized I wanted to see how one of my favorite auteurs fleshes out this continuation of a new stage in his creative vision.

In many ways La Mala Educación is a return to form, recalling Almodovar’s earlier interpretation of Ruth Rendall’s Live Flesh. Had the film’s narrative been presented in a straightforward manner, the plot would be a somewhat base, albeit wildly imaginative, whodunit.  A Vertigo where the object of obsession is a choir boy turned pre-op transsexual? A Double Indemnity plotted by a pedophile priest and hustler? The filmmaker has always had a knack for bringing out the humanity and poignancy behind the pulp/noir idiom.  And there is no happy ending.  Ultimately, the leads are all flawed, manipulative, and self-serving – pretty rotten.  Almodovar keeps the audience sympathetic and engaged with his flawed players.  The narrative structure of the film is genius - amazing storytelling.

Gael García Bernal brilliantly holds the film together in triple roles as Ángel/Juan/Zahara.  The kids playing young Juan and Enrique are fantastic!  I thought the actor playing the grown up Enrique was familiar - Fele Martínez  from Abre los ojos of course!  There’s a lot more I wanna share but I’m beat…time to move on.

Comments

[John]

That Dupont Loews is just EVIL though not as bad as the one that's now a clothing store up the street - the one that had poles in the middle of the third auditorium - not the mention the dreaded "screen 3," where you had to buy your ticket then go outside and walk down the street to get to your seat. (Wasn't the restroom behind the screen great? A challenge for the pee shy.)

Considering the demographics of DC, I was never able to figure out why the cinema situation is so dire. I am surprised that Bad Education (which was a delight) did not open at E Street or Bethesda Row.