Bad Education - 2019
Allow me to begin by making a claim as bold, brash, and somehow true-to-life as Bad Education itself turns out to be: This is the best of Hugh Jackman you've ever yet seen. I thought long and hard about what to say about a film that left me nearly as impressed with Cory Finley as Thoroughbreds did, while somehow being inferior in several regards. (We'll get to that in a moment). But what I landed on was this: This one is ALL ABOUT the performances.
Let's begin with the always prickly Allison Janney. What I've grown to love about her as her credits continue to pile up is her chameleon-like nature. This is a woman who completely loses herself in her roles. I think this became most clear to me in I, Tonya, where the tall, often comic actress from The West Wing and other minor supporting roles transformed herself into a wrinkled, chain-smoking crosspatch. She furthers the trend here in portraying a school official who hides seething boils underneath a twinkly veneer. She's one of the greatest at offering a deadpan response which is hilarious yet causes our skin to crawl and our hair to stand on end. Sweet masking deathly sour.
All of this is perfect for the nature of this story. So too is Jackman, as another official who is as smooth-talking as Broderick Crawford in All the King's Men (and as conniving too). Jackman just nails all of the beats perfectly. He looks the part of a greased back go-getter who is as fastidious about his physical appearance as he is in remembering the names and minute details of his constituents. He's mastered every party line, covered up every lie, and tied up every loose end. Or so he thinks.
Enter newcomer Geraldine Viswanathan into the fray, a precocious yet reserved school newspaper writer who is simply looking for a quote on the construction of a new crosswalk in the district. Think keeping up with the Joneses meets Ivy League acceptance parlor talk. This is the shark-infested waters that Finley swims in with Bad Education. Rather than granting a little soundbyte to appease the young lady, however, Hackman challenges her to dig deeper for a "real story." A mistake, as it would turn out, that he'll come to regret for decades afterward.
So, this all seems well and good. Three great roles (I haven't even talked about the supporting bits by Ray Romano and a host of other honest workers toiling away for the good of a district trying to rise to the top) humming at a perfect pitch. What doesn't work? Well, for me, it's just a little tonally jarring. This is a tale about embezzlement, the misuse of taxpayer dollars, and the crippling aftermath of its exposure. It's about a host of sincere students and workers having the wool pulled over their eyes.
Still, Finley has his sights set on something approaching black comedy as well. As such, the project requires a delicate balance. We have to kind of enjoy the company of these swindling rogues, without ever coming to fully root for their success. Finley mostly accomplishes this task. The film is often funny in its first two acts. It never ceases to be entertaining, yet the director has chosen to forego typical Hollywood sensationalism for a better glimpse at a true-crime drama. One that is more restrained in its exposure of white-collar devious acts. In these ways it is quite balanced.
Still, I think when the consequences come to bear, when falsehoods are exposed, these moments don't land with the emotional punch that they should. There is a sort of clinical distance from the whole proceedings, a distance in fact which worked fantastically for the blackly macabre nature of Thoroughbreds. But there are real people caught in the crosshairs this time around (my apologies to the dude hacked up in the film I just mentioned). I remained strangely distant and unfeeling towards the students and outraged parents financing this charade. Janney's downfall never landed as it should have either.
What we're left with is a film which is quite solid but never transcendent. Kudos to Finley for being unafraid to get down and dirty, in this case in showing the way Jackman's character is able to gaslight and press school officials into morally gray ground to "stay on top of the game." But, perhaps I longed for as much pathos and emotional connection in the aftermath as there was incision in the plot's construction. The score is often unsettling and roundly fantastic, but it cannot do all this legwork alone. Maybe this will be the director's next leap forward. In any case, one gargantuan performance and another just slightly lesser one besides will be this film's enduring legacy in my eyes.
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