FilmSnobReviews

Title: Bad Education
MPAA Rating: TV-MA
Director: Cory Finley
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney, Geraldine Viswanathan
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins

What It Is: Frank Tassone (Jackman) is the superintendent of a thriving school district in New York. With the great school comes a trusting community. A trusting community that believes in both Tassone and his Assistant Superintendent Pam Gluckin (Janney). When revelations of fraud and corruption begin to run rampant it calls into questions anything and everything that they’d accomplished thus far. But are the allegations real? Who’s really behind it all? And lastly, can this community ever trust it’s esteemed educators again?

What We Think: Hugh Jackman is literally spellbinding here. Whatever magic he’s putting forward here just has you under and never let’s go. There’s an Emmy on his way and I don’t know who can really stop him. He’s never won an Emmy for his acting, it’s about time! Geraldine Viswanathan, who’s a very nice young lady, is also quite fantastic here. HBO has given you all a real winner. There are some excellent dialogue moments and Finley, who’s previous film Thoroughbreds was an underrated gem. A lot of that came down to Finley’s script, luckily Mike Makowsky brought a really good adaptation of the New Yorker article written about this bad superintendent.

Our Grade: B+, This is a splendid film. A film that you might end up putting on your best-of list for 2020 is the type of thing that HBO is often great at putting out. If you have HBO this is the one to watch for sure. From great performances and a stellar script, this is something you would definitely want to see. Jackman earns his stripes as an actor and continues his fierce bevy of performances as of late. Check this one out. It is quite literally the tea.