Bad Education Makes The Grade When It Comes To Well-Crafted Dark Comedy

As Bad Education begins, we follow Dr. Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) around in his duties as superintendent of the Rosyln School District in Long Island, New York. He's good at what he does. He looks sharp in a suit, he knows every students name, he gets along with all the parents, he's even adhering to a strict diet. He's the idealized vision of a person in education. Maybe too idealized. There's something...off about Frank Tassone. He's a bit too perfect, a tad too polished. Save for the more frank conversations he has with co-worker Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney), Tassone is always speaking in inspirational quotes tailor-made to be dropped in a press release rather than in conversation with other human beings.


Tassone has charm, there's no denying that, but he idolizes perfection at the cost of any trace of humanity. Turns out, that's not the only thing he's hiding. As High School student Rachel Bhargava (Geraldine Viswanathan) digs deeper into the school district's tax information, secrets begin to get uncovered. First, the revelations are all about Glucklin and her illicit spending before it comes out that Tassone has also been concealing plenty of deception. Writer Mike Makowsky and director Cory Finley unfurl a boatload of treachery (based on a true story to boot!) punctuated with the kind of precise directing and dark humor that made Finley's directorial debut Thoroughbreds such a macabre treat.

Also carried over from Finley's prior feature film is an emphasis on sound work to accentuate tension. In the case of Bad Education, every smacking of dry lips or the drip-drip-drip of a leaking roof tile is used like a dwindling timer on a bomb. They're signifiers that something bad is just waiting to explode. Another welcome return from Thoroughbreds is the presence of editor Louise Ford. Her excellent sense of timing not only enhance a number of jokes but also provide great glimpses into how these warped characters operate. A cut that sees Tassone rehearsing interactions with party guests, turning around and suddenly being at the party allows viewers a chance to see how much effort Tassone puts into the appearance of being effortlessly social.

While Bad Education carries over a number of the best traits of Thoroughbreds, it's far from being a retread of that earlier Cory Finley feature. For one thing, Finley is working with a noticeably larger scope with Bad Education than he did on Thoroughbreds. This expanded scope allows Finley's distinct style of directing (he tends to opt for wider shots with very precise blocking) to flourish. Finley also chooses to film Bad Education with discernible pieces of film grain and other projection imperfections associated with older cinema. While it works at establishing this as a period piece, it also makes the images on-screen as grimy as the primary characters. The lives of Frank Tassone and Pam Glucklin are riddled with shortcomings, so too is the way they've been captured on film.

Mike Makowsky's screenplay, meanwhile, proves to be a dryly comical treat. It's interesting to learn that Makowsky himself was a student at a Rosalyn Middle School when these events actually happened. While he was too young at the time to fully understand what was happening, him having some sort of presence adjacent to the actual events explains the level of authenticity in how the world of Bad Education is depicted. There's something already off about the way Frank Tassone and company compose themselves even before all of the lies come bubbling to the surface. All grins, all rehearsed inspirational lines, not a trace of discernible humanity. Much like the soundwork, the depiction of the Rosalyn Scool District in Makowsky's script makes this place a ticking time bomb that was bound to go off.

How could things not go wrong when you're dealing with such powerful people with such warped perspectives on right and wrong? Such individuals get portrayed by Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney, the latter of whom has plenty of experience playing antagonistic figures who are convinced they're actually in the right. This means Janney lends a natural sense of conviction to her performance while her equally extensive experience with comedy means she's got a knack for handling Bad Education's specific brand of dark humor. Especially impressive in Janney's performance is how she depicts Pam Glucklin becoming emotional over suffering consequences for her actions. There's such vivid rage at the world in Janney's acting that makes it apparent just how distorted the perspective of her character truly is. After all, she's mad at suffering consequences for extended acts of embezzlement!

Unlike Janney, Hugh Jackman doesn't have as much experience with playing adversarial characters. In his career, such performances have come from thinly-sketched blockbuster baddies like his characters in CHAPPiE and Pan. Given the chance to actually play a richly-conceived antagonist, though, Jackman knocks it out of the park. When Frank Tassone has to be a hallow depiction of a kindly educational figure, he can nail it. Meanwhile, scenes where he's more confrontational (like when Glucklin's daughter-in-law tries to blackmail him), he's able to command such authority through such restrained means. These are such bold new sides of Jackman that not only reinforce his talents as an actor but make Frank Tassone such a compelling and complex figure. Come to Bad Education for a next-level lead performance from Hugh Jackman, stay for some incredible example of sound work, directing and editing!