“Bad Education”
The incredible magic trick of Cory Finley’s “Bad Education,” a diabolically smart true-life crime drama that stars Hugh Jackman as a Long Island superintendent in his best performance since “The Prestige,” is how it manages to invite sympathy for the devil even after it convinces you why he should go to hell. Heavy with poisoned humor and as panoramic as Finley’s “Thoroughbreds” was laser-focused, “Bad Education” is in no hurry to reveal the full picture; watching the first hour of the movie, it’s hard to imagine how this seemingly benign tale of suburban malfeasance could possibly explode into the biggest embezzlement scandal in the history of the American school system. But it sure does.
Working from an incisive script by Mike Makowsky (who was actually a student at Roslyn High School when the action went down in 2002), Finley takes a kaleidoscopic approach to the story, craftily revealing what Dr. Frank Tassone (Jackman) and his assistant Pam (Allison Janney) knew and when they knew it. The back office of a school district may not sound like the most exciting place to set a movie, but “Bad Education” resists the temptation to sex things up for the sake of the drama. Finley’s rigid compositions and Lyle Vincent’s gliding camera moves galvanize Frank’s administrative fiefdom with a sense of absolute purpose. This is a film in which even the most innocent scenes crackle with nervous energy and — especially once Frank reconnects with a former student played by Rafael Casal — frustrated erotic tension. Most of all, it’s a film that’s galvanized by a sense of profound empathy that’s alternately deepened and challenged with every scene. Thanks to the most grounded performance Jackman has ever given, it all builds to a remarkable third-act scene that defies every rule about conventional filmmaking; a wordless and shockingly moving dance number so human and desperate that it makes you take all your own judgments with a grain of salt. —DE