Bad Education (2020)

After his directorial debut, Thoroughbreds, I would watch anything director Finley put out. Casting Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney in his follow up film and now I am salivating. Then it turns out he tells the based on true events story about embezzling money in a Long Island school district... He almost lost me...

But he wins me back with the sharp, funny, and engaging Bad Education, a film that manages to do a deep dig into the exploitation of public funds while also telling a good story and giving a great cast meaty roles to chew into. Jackman and Janney are both as good as one would expect of them and the supporting cast steps up too. The film despite its rather bleak and banal subject remains thoroughly gripping and powerful.

Finley uses a stark, washed out colour palette to create both a docu-drama style and also creating a cold, harsh environment for its characters to exist in. The script from Makowski doesn't allow those characters to be one dimensional or cliche. We get into their lives, desires, fears, to get to what motivates people to take advantage of the systems and communities. Janney's character could have quite easily been a villain motivated solely by greed. It is common to see women in positions of power like that. Instead she is complicated and difficult to nail down. She shows strength in the way she fights back against being thrown under the bus.

Writer, Makowski talked about how his research into the incident showed a far more nuanced and complex situation behind what was likely dismissed as simple corruption. It is the exploration of that which makes Bad Education so interesting. Jackman's character is a portrait of the way men can be forced into hiding who they are to be successful and how that not only eats away at him but leads him to be inclined to take what is available. It's an interesting breakdown. Often it's easier for us to just blame people for making bad choices instead of looking at why people do them. Makowski and Finley have made a stark portrait of that exploration and it's fascinating.

So Bad Education was far more interesting than I expected, and it's the sort of film I might have skipped if it wasn't for who was involved in it, and perhaps they are part of the reason this film turned out as it did. I'm glad I didn't miss it.

Bad Education
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney, Geraldine Viswanathan, Alex Wolff, Ray Romano, Annaleigh Ashley, Rafael Casal
Director: Corey Finley
Writer: Mike Makowski