AN A+ FOR 'EDUCATION'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

FOLLOWING on the heels of movies with women in their titles - ``All About My Mother'' and ``Talk to Her'' - Pedro Almodovar leaves the fairer sex out entirely in his latest masterpiece, ``Bad Education,'' which blends autobiography, film noir and his typically twisted take on passion into a densely layered, darkly funny look at the lies people tell themselves and others in order to make their fantasies come true.

The story's Russian-doll structure is a marvel, knocking the audience off balance time and time again, as Almodovar revels in the artifice that he has always self-knowingly commented on in his films. Almodovar knows that storytelling is the same thing as lying, and his characters do both as well as anyone you'll ever have the pleasure of meeting in a darkened theater.

The film centers on Ignacio and Enrique, who met as boys in a Catholic school in Spain. Ignacio and Enrique fell in love with the movies - and each other - but their idyllic world was shattered by the school's principal, Father Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), who has eyes for Ignacio and jealously wants him for himself.

Flash forward about 15 years. It's 1980 and Enrique (Fele Martinez) is a successful filmmaker living in Madrid, looking for new inspiration. He finds it - and then some - when Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal) turns up at his office with a script called ``The Visit,'' which recounts their childhood friendship and Ignacio's sexual abuse by Father Manolo. Enrique is enthralled, both by the writing and by the beautiful Ignacio, who now insists on being called Angel.

As Enrique reads ``The Visit,'' we see the scenes from the film play out on screen. But the truth of the story, as well as Ignacio's identity, begins to unravel, well before Enrique decides to make ``The Visit'' into a movie. At that point, all bets are off and the film noir aspects of ``Bad Education'' take hold, sending the characters spiraling into an abyss where treachery and shadowy secrets are the rule.

The film noir genre is a natural for Almodovar, who, judging from his body of work, clearly knows a thing or two about obsession and is completely willing to present amoral characters without the slightest whiff of judgment. The movie's strong homoerotic content may prove shocking to those who have come to know the filmmaker through only his last two Oscar-winning movies. But ``Bad Education'' isn't a departure, merely a continuation of the kind of unsparing, audacious work that has made Almodovar one of cinema's brightest lights.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

BAD EDUCATION - Four stars

(NC-17: strong sexual content, language, violence)

Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Fele Martinez.

Director: Pedro Almodovar.

Running time: 1 hr. 49 min.

Playing: Laemmle's Sunset 5 in West Hollywood; Landmark's NuWilshire in Santa Monica.

In a nutshell: Almodovar does film noir. It's a natural fit and a continuation of the filmmaker's remarkable artistic roll.

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Fele Martinez is Enrique, a Spanish filmmaker who decides to turn his longtime friend's script, about childhood abuse at the hands of a priest, into a movie, in ``Bad Education.''