MPAA Rating: TV-MA/Genre: Crime Drama/Stars: Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney, Geraldine Viswanathan, Alex Wolff, Rafael Casal, Stephen Spinella, Annaleigh Ashford, Ray Romano, Hari Dhillon, Jeremy Shamos, Stephanie Kurtzuba, Catherine Curtin, Kathrine Narducci, Ray Abruzzo, Kayli Carter, Jimmy Tatro, Pat Healy, Larry Romano/Runtime: 108 minutes
I think it’s safe to start this review off by asking all of you a question. That being what do you think is the career field that doesn’t get nearly as much love, from a financial perspective, that it really ought to? Well for the purposes of this review (place on the Family Feud Top 5 answers board notwithstanding) I think the best answer to that question would have to be educators. I mean here is a group of people who desperately do what they can to teach scores of “precious little youngsters” the knowledge they need in order to make it in this world, even IF common sense is still sadly not an available elective choice, and do so on a salary that, given the impact these people can have, you would think would be higher than what it sadly is. Yet as bad as this financial inequality is to begin with, it’s definitely got to be even worse in places where not only is the cost of living through the roof, but renting let alone owning your own home (a cost actually made worse or better due to the degree of quality of the public schools in a given area) is an achievement that would require some serious Monopoly-levels of financial wizardry to pull off. Thus with all of these factors, and others, squaring off against them I guess it really does raise the question of how a teacher is supposed to be able, from a financial perspective, to be a vital component of a community when that same community is dead set on financially shutting them out? Well as it just so happens in the long-ago year of 2002 a community in New York state received an answer to that question and while it was by no means a moral or legally upstanding one it did do a few things right. Those being not only opening the eyes of the community to just who the kind of people they had trusted in these essential positions really were on the inside, but also in giving us in the year 2019 a fairly engaging slice of cinema about the events in question, and which I happen to be reviewing for you today incidentally, known as Bad Education. A film that might not be a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination, but with the aid of fairly gripping work on both sides of the camera definitely manages to be more than just a movie about the equally tragical and comical irony to be found when a group of educators flunk that timeless course known as life 101 and proceed to scramble to stay one step ahead of the fallout of their choices. Rather, it also manages to be one film that asks what do you do when the people you trust to oversee your kids academic future drop the ball in one of the worst ways possible to say nothing of being one film that (unlike the people at the heart of it) definitely makes the grade and is one you will most assuredly want to watch time and time again.
The plot is as follows: Taking us all the way back to Long Island in the year 2002, Bad Education gets its story underway by introducing us to a man by the name of Dr. Frank Tassone. Tassone, we are rather quick to learn, is the superintendent of the Roslyn School District and to say that the man is beloved by the community is a wee bit of an understatement. Rather not only has the district under his and assistant superintendent Pam Gluckin’s shepherding seen tremendous improvement, but Roslyn High School has even been named the 4th best public school in all of America. As a result, not only have the kids been getting access to better educational opportunities, but the local economy has also seen quite the positive degree of growth much to the satisfaction of head of the school board, and local real estate mogul, Bob Spicer. In short: this is a man who, in the eyes of the community, might be a bit on the private side when it comes to his personal life (especially in terms of his relationship status as a still-grieving widower), but in terms of his public life you would be hard pressed to find a more iconic or adored fixture in the community. It isn’t long though before things begin to take a turn for both Tassone to say nothing of the school district and the community itself at large when Gluckin decides to let her not so intellectually nimble son take on the responsibility of helping her remodel their house only for the boy wonder to utilize a school district credit card to take care of the mountain of charges he accrues at all the home improvement stores he goes to for supplies. On top of that, we see that a student reporter by the name of Rachel Bhargava soon shows up at Frank’s office door looking for a soundbite on a new skywalk the school administration is looking to construct that might just help them finally reach that coveted #1 spot. Yet even though we see that Rachel isn’t entirely sure of the worthiness of such a story for the school paper, to the point that she even claims it to be nothing more than a puff piece at most, we see that Frank instead encourages to give the article as much devotion to detail as any journalist worth their salt would. In taking his advice however, we see that it doesn’t take a whole lot of digging before our intrepid reporter to begin seeing that it isn’t just charges at the local Lowe’s (or whathaveyou) that have been engaged in on the side and it isn’t just Gluckin’s dimwitted offspring behind them either. As to the total amount of these charges, the guilty parties responsible for them, and the ensuing impact that this has on the lives involved to say nothing of both the school district and overall community that I will leave for you to discover for yourself dear reader….
Now right off it’s worth pointing out that the work done behind the camera on this slice of cinema isn’t all that bad despite a couple of hiccups here and there. This starts with the fact that, for the subject matter at the heart of its narrative, this slice of cinema manages to be surprisingly quite humorous. Indeed, as penned by someone who actually attended a school in the real-life school district during the time this scandal occurred, this film might not ever hesitate in showing us the comedy at the heart of this set of circumstances, but it also thankfully doesn’t go for the obvious jokes all the time (the very over the top decorations in Gluckin’s home aside). Along with that, it’s also worth pointing out that with their very heavy accents to say nothing of fashion choices, the unquestioning denizens in this town could have been ripe to poke a lot of fun at, but again that’s not what this slice of cinema is aiming for. Instead, this is a film where the satirical material is tempered so that a higher degree of reality than normal can seep into the proceedings thus giving us a film that operates like a school district take on an investigative thriller with the comedic style of something akin to 1999’s Election thrown in for good measure whilst also endeavoring to showcase for us what these people and their lives were like that could make them think the financial crimes they committed were even remotely justifiable. To that end, we see that this slice of cinema’s helmer makes the creative, and fairly successful, choice to showcase the humdrum life of those working at a public school via both filming in very harsh fluorescent light and devoting a solid chunk of the first act to presenting us with these characters’ rather run of the mill lives. If anything, it’s zeroing in on just how some of these characters transitioned into engaging in a delightful bit of embezzlement where we see that this slice of cinema doesn’t fully work as intended. A feat due in large part to the fact that a lot of the remainder of the runtime not really trying to explore their motivations, but instead operating more as a chess game where the parties involved in the scam do everything they can to not get caught. To be sure, the film does make a few correlations to not just financial misdeeds on Wall Street to say nothing of the void of punishment for those misdeeds, but as the film comes to a close there is no denying that it isn’t quite able to land where it should from either a narrative or thematic point of view. We also see that this slice of cinema is also the blessed recipient of a wonderful musical accompaniment from Michael Abels. Indeed Abels’ score manages to be a terrific mix of both apt in its novelty whilst also managing to incorporate some dignified additions that, much in the same vein as the scandal, begin to slowly yet surely unfurl as the movie goes along. Finally, it should also be mentioned that with the aid of the cinematography, production design, and costuming departments this slice of cinema is not only able to gain further authenticity in the story it is trying to tell, but is able to even more effectively transform this film into an ode to both questionable taste as well as even more head-scratching morality. Suffice it to say then that it might not work as well as it fully could have behind the camera, but in terms of showcasing how some people put in charge of providing the best education possible for scores of kids could fail as badly as they did this film more than certainly pulls off a passing grade and then some in that regard.
Of course, perhaps the big element that definitely helps this slice of cinema soar to the level that it is ultimately able to attain would have to come in the form of the immensely well-done performances given in front of the camera by this film’s incredibly talented cast of players. This starts, without question, with Hugh Jackman in the lead role and he is phenomenal. Yes I know Jackman has received more than his fair share of praise for his iconic turn as a certain clawed superhero and I definitely get that, but for me I also enjoy movies Jackman’s done like Prisoners, the 2012 take on Les Mis, Chappie, and Real Steel to name a few where he actually gets to stretch his acting muscles a fair bit and that is definitely the case here. Indeed the skill with which we see Jackman present Frank Tassone as someone who cares about the students and community whilst also veiling a very suppressed degree of both shame and exasperation is absolutely terrific. More than that though, it is worth pointing out that this performance is also one that has more than a few layers to it, but to the film’s credit it doesn’t have any particular desire to see those layers be ripped off or just dissolved away to the point that the character starts engaging in particularly childish temper tantrums as the movie goes on. Rather, we see that Jackman brilliantly chooses instead to only give us very quick glimpses of who Frank genuinely is to the point that there are times where he is talking to certain characters and acting charming yet when you really listen to what he’s saying and observe his facial responses you see that he’s really acting more so in a way that is quite the opposite of that. Suffice it to say that Hugh Jackman is a phenomenal actor when given the right material and this most assuredly is that and so much more. Equally as wonderful as Jackman though is the always enjoyable Allison Janney in the role of Pamela Gluckin. Indeed Janney has for awhile now done a masterful job at giving us characters who can be more than a wee bit on the acerbic side and here she continues that run by giving us a look at a woman who yes does her part in ensuring the schools continue to run as intended and does have respect for Frank, but who also at the same time has either no patience for a particular student questioning how things are run to say nothing of qualms about flaunting her ill-gotten gains and whose reason for doing the things she does is simply because she wanted more from her life than what she was currently getting. We also get a truly delightful turn here from Geraldine Viswanathan as the student reporter who winds up being the first to really see just how deep and immersive this corruptive ocean truly is and must figure out if bringing the story to light really is worth all the heartache and chaos that it might very well end up causing. Suffice it to say that when you also factor in wonderful efforts from such screen talents as the always enjoyable Ray Romano who is a delight both comedically and dramatically as the school board president/ town real estate bigwig, Alex Wolff, Rafael Casal, Stephen Spinella, Annaleigh Ashford, and Katherine Narducci among others it’s clear that this slice of cinema might have issues, but the work done by this cast is most assuredly not one of them.
All in all and at the end of the day, is Bad Education a perfect A+ grade-worthy slice of cinema? Honestly, given the talent involved on this film, I would love to say that’s the case, but I also promised that I would never lie to you so that should definitely tell you something. Having said that however, would I say that this slice of cinema is a complete and utter F to say nothing of the worst thing to happen to cinema since Hugh Jackman showed up in Movie 43? Thankfully, I can definitely say that is most assuredly not the case either, but that’s also because I can’t think of another Hugh Jackman movie that is even remotely close to being on the level of cinematic garbage dump as that cinematic abomination was. Rather, I would say that this is a slice of cinema that with the aid of a riveting narrative, some really good work behind the camera, and most assuredly solid work in front of the camera by a game and well-chosen cast of players manages to make for quite the riveting viewing experience even if there are areas where I definitely feel like the film could have fleshed things out a fair bit more than what it ultimately chooses to do. More than all of that though, Bad Education is an intriguing look at those distinct and infamous forces in the universe known as greed plus sheer blind ignorance to say nothing of denial and the impact that these turbulent forces can manage to have when they manage to rear their ugly head inside no less an institution than the public school system. Not just on the people who they manage to take hold of and who then run with them in a direction that is either completely idiotic or just downright illegal, but on the rest of the staff, the parents, and most heartbreaking of all, the kids whose educational futures are placed in these very individuals’ hands. Make of that what thou will dear reader. On a scale of 1-5 I give Bad Education “2019” a solid 4 out of 5.
