Review: HBO's BAD EDUCATION Starring Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney
I got the chance to sit down this weekend and watch the HBO movie Bad Education starring Hugh Jackman (Logan, The Greatest Showman), Allison Janney (Juno, Mom), Geraldine Viswanathan (Blockers, Miracle Workers), and Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond, The Irishman).
The film follows the true story of New York’s Roslyn School District in 2002, when it was one of the top five districts in numbers of kids that went on to major Ivy League schools. Jackman plays Frank Tassone, the superintendent of the district, who simply seemed like one of the kindest and most down to earth people. He made sure to memorize each name, each kid, each family. He inspired the students at his schools, and genuinely cared about their hopes and dreams. He is a guy that regularly attended book club with the mothers from the schools he was in charge of, and was a faithful widow, a little vain, but seemingly a wonderful man.
This was a time when all things were headed upward for both Tassone and the Roslyn district, when his assistant superintendent, Pam Gluckin (Janney) was found to have embezzled an incredible amount of money. This is where the story gets really intriguing. When the layers begin to get peeled back, we find that there are major secrets and deceptions at play. Viswanathan plays high school junior, Rachel Bhargava, who, while writing a piece for the school paper, holds an investigation into Tassone himself, and follows where the school district money has been going, and finds some shocking evidence of deception on many levels.
The outcome was the largest public school embezzlement scandal in American history, and the film was totally riveting. Cory Finley (Thoroughbreds) directed in only his second feature helm, and did an incredible job. He made the story feel so real, and so high stakes, with characters you felt connected to, and felt compassion for despite their massive and major flaws.
The movie was beautifully shot, and incredibly well-acted. Check Bad Education out now on HBO or HBO Go.
