Well, I was expecting a comedy, but got a very good drama instead…. Because you see Bad Education is not the same or equal to Bad Teacher, with Cameron Diaz, or Bad Santa, with Billy Bob Thorton, or Bad Eggs, with Mick Malloy – “bad” usually means “funny”, but this time “bad” just means “bad.” You can see how I was misled.
Bad Education is directed by Cory Finley and stars Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney as state-district administrators for the education system. Dr. Frank Tassone and Pam Gluckin respectively, look after the Roslyn district, and their hard work and experience has improved the districts grades and reputation so much that Roselyn High School is the fourth best ranked public high school in the country. But soon, Rachel (Geraldine Viswanathan), working for the Roselyn school paper, discovers copious amounts of state money going untracked, around the same time Pam’s son makes several personal purchases with his Mum’s company card. Pam is quickly in hot water, with Frank having to navigate the potential fall out to keep his school on top.
The best thing about Bad Education is Frank Tassone; Hugh Jackman gets to showcase his charisma, presenting a controlled façade even in trying circumstances. There may be something too perfect about Frank and Pam from the beginning but it’s clear they are genuine friends, and with everything going so well, who would question their hard work and dedication. It’s only when the word ‘sociopath’ gets thrown out do we look deeper into Frank. Frank is used to keeping up appearances, hiding his homosexuality as his number one lie, and having a knack for deflecting trouble; effortless demoting Pam’s niece, Jenny (Annaleigh Ashford), or tongue-tying the claims auditor, Phil (Jeremy Shamos), when he sniffs out indiscretion. But the movie does a good job at telling two stories; Frank is a passionate educator, genuinely, with great endeavour for bettering his school district. But he steals, feathering his own nest, in a straight and narrow industry that prides itself on teaching ethics to children – if Bad Education was The Wolf of Wall Street, Ray Ramano’s school board character might be beating his chest in celebration of Frank’s deceit instead of conceding what they’ve built to expose him. Frank ends making a point that the teaching industry gets idolised for going nobly unseen, in complete service of the parents and students, when they are human too. It led me to think how teachers are like umpires in a way; they’re recognised at their best when things are running smoothly, with as little interference in the process as possible.
I dug the music choices, down to Dido in the closing credits – it’s a well-known song to recall but I think it fits really well with the tone and characters presented in this film. The first twenty minutes make the direction of the plot rough to pin down, until the drama gets underway once Pam is in trouble; from then, there’s always an understated uneasiness permeated in part by the score. It’s like breath in a bottle played by a school choir (think Lisa Simpson blowing in that jug) – Bombshell had a similar soundtrack and it seems to fit well to spell out office corruption in movies. The use of camera framing is also fantastic; I always felt the subject was a little off centre or tilted one way or the other and wouldn’t exactly match the perspective of who they were talking to. I remembered studying American Beauty at high school, and my teacher would point out this effect during the scenes where Kevin Spacey is talking to his boss, used to refer dominance or mistrust – Bad Education chooses to shoot the entire picture like that, which helps us deduce that something is not quite right. It goes with the smart way the movie lays out the story, keeping us in the dark to the corruption and revealing the problem slowly but surely through investigation. It’s like the anti-Spotlight in execution; the more that is revealed by the investigation into their business, the less we can go along with our main characters, Frank and Pam. Bad Education is almost void of exposition, allowing the characters actions to inform us until we eventually nab the whole picture.
I hadn’t come across Allison Janney since I, Tonya and this is a good role for her to sink her teeth into. I wish I had one or two more scenes with her though, as the focus of the movie primarily stays with a very polished Hugh Jackman; one or two more scenes with her and we could’ve certainly been talking about Janney again come award season. And it’s strange seeing Geraldine Viswanathan act seriously after she was so spunky in Blockers; I’m glad she’s still getting around though, diversifying her career.
Bad Education is a quaint story that excels by finding the most compelling way to present. It’s on Foxtel is Australia, and worth checking out.
4.0
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