I don’t mean to sound like an infidel or (gasp) your average lazy American, but, in a weird way, I miss the old days when movies were dubbed. That is not to say I prefer dubbing to subtitles when it comes to foreign-language movies (I prefer the subs, most definitely), but there used to be a certain naïve charm found only in a movie where the lips just didn’t match the voice.

One of my favorite examples of bad-dubbing-that-becomes-good is Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville: a fucking fantabulous film, right? Sure, it’s better when you see it in its native French… but that English audio was so bizarre that it fit perfectly ("I’m very well, thank you please"). Another instance would be the atrocious soundtrack found within the U.S. release of Beau Pere. Oh, was it ever awful, yet it still stands out in my mind today (several decades later) over the original soundtrack.

Somewhere down the road, the campy art of looping was lost. I can watch an old Godzilla film in English and savor every second of it, but if I try watching a modern Godzilla flick in English, it’s only a matter of time before my ears are bleeding and I’m changing the audio option back to Japanese (Versus, anyone?). Why? Because modern voice actors suck, that’s why! Fortunately, more and more film distributors are realizing this (at least, I hope they are) and simply release International films as-is.

In case you’re wondering, the answer is "Yes, everything I just said is completely irrelevant" but it does serve as a great lead-in to Charm School: a movie in its native Spanish and no bad English dubbing.

Adela León (Martha Higareda) is the daughter of Mexico City politician Martín León (Rafael Sánchez Navarro) who is running for Governor. She’s your average rebellious youth with tattoos, a piercing and a habit of getting into trouble. When her shirt catches fire one night whilst performing onstage, she tears it off (yes, we have boobies within the first five minutes, kids!) and is promptly arrested for indecent exposure and arson thanks to a wonderful system. Fearing that this sort of bad publicity could damage her father’s chances of winning the election, his cohorts send her to a private, all-girl’s school run by Maca Ribera (Blanca Guerra). Maca claims that she can turn any girl into Miss Prim-and-Proper housewife, but instead she gets the challenge of a lifetime when Adela arrives and promptly starts turning the school upside-down.

Other characters at the school include Maribel (María Aura), a hyper little thing who is annoyingly anxious to become housewife of the year (her attempts to make caramel resulted in the destruction of a pot, a sponge, a hand towel, a bowl of Chantilly cream and gave the dog diarrhea); Heidi (Alejandra Adame), the yuppie, bitchy, conservative future daughter-in-law of Mr. León’s political rival (and subsequently Adela’s new worst enemy); Valentina (Ximena Sariñana), the arty lesbian (at least, she thinks she’s a lesbian) ; and Pía, the brainiac of the bunch (Camila Sodi), taking the course as part of an agreement with her slutty mother (Diana Golden, Santo: Infraterrestre) so her mum will stop trying to hook her up with the young guys she sleeps with. Rounding out the group is Maca’s maid/housekeeper Fina (Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez), a woman with attitude.

Along the way, Adela manages to screw everything up for everyone: she ruins both her father’s political career and Heidi’s engagement and also manages to get the school shut down, but when the little rebels band together, they learn that they have more in common with each other than they would like to admit and that eventually, everyone has to grow up.

Yada, yada, yada.

Well, I can’t say that there is anything new here (the coming-of-age story and social/political commentary, etc.) but the performances are very sincere (these ladies are a hell of a lot better than the shitty actresses forced upon us here in the states… and these women aren’t afraid to bare their beautiful bodies, either!) and the girls are pretty enough to make you forget about the weak moments. If you’re a perv (like me), then you will no doubt enjoy the scenes of naked and scantily-clad young ladies.

Actually, it’s not that bad of a movie… I probably would’ve found it enjoyable even without the T&A.

(This message is for Camila and Martha: should you ladies ever want a visa for the U.S., you can marry me… both of you… I can handle the two of you no problem.)

Presentation
Sony brings us a nice-looking transfer of Charm School with an anamorphic 1.85:1 ratio. While mostly devoid of grain, dirt or scratches, the image could be better. There are 5.1 Surround Sound tracks in both Spanish and French. While good, neither track really takes full advantage of all 5.1 audio components. Subtitles are available in English and French.

Extras
Go behind-the-scenes with The Making of Charm School, which is presented in four parts: The Start of Production (3:14), the Fall of Adela (Caida de Adela) (3:34), Adela’s Fight (Pelea de Adela) (2:53), and Performance (2:48). These clips do not feature any narration (the dialogue is subtitled, though) and merely consist of shots recorded on the set by some guy with a camcorder. Next up is a Music Video from Ximena Sariñana, "Como Soy" (3:56). It’s a very catchy tune (even if you don’t understand Spanish) and to say that Ms. Sariñana has a wonderful voice would be an understatement. The video stars the ladies of the film and is intertwined with footage from the feature.

As always, there are some Sony trailers: a Coming To Blu-Ray promo, Feel The Noise, Across The Universe, The Jane Austen Book Club (wait, Jimmy Smits is still acting? I thought the Star Wars prequels would’ve 86’d his career for sure!), Quinceañera (a film for the vato loco in you), Goya’s Ghosts (Stellan Skarsgård and Natalie Portman in Milos Forman’s tale of the famous artist), The Nines, Southland Tales, Volver (viva Almodovar) and The Good Night (Gwyneth Paltrow’s little brother Jake directs Martin Freeman, Penélope Cruz, Simon Pegg, Gwyneth and Danny DeVito in a story of a man who literally meets the woman of his dreams). I can understand the teenie and Spanish-language oriented trailers (after all, this film is aimed at Mexican teenage girls), but the addition of some of these previews had me scratching my head. Still, you have to push the product, right?

The Bottom Line
Like seeing young girls in panties or less? Me, too! Pick up a copy of Charm School, fast-forward to the nudie bits, put on your favorite masturbation music and enjoy (you can always tell your friends you’re a closet Foreign Film junkie if they ask).

		Charm School (Niñas Mal)
3.5		Feature - A decent drama/comedy with some boobies and booties thrown in for good measure.
3		Video - Good, but rather drab looking.
3		Audio - Dolby Stereo would have sufficed.
2.5		Extras - A fun music video is bogged down with random behind-the-scenes footage.

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