Bad Education (2019)

Bad Education (2019)

7/10

Starring

Hugh Jackman

Allison Janney

Geraldine Viswanathan

Alex Wolff

Directed by Cory Finley

Bad Education is a crime drama about school embezzlement, based on a true life event of how the superintendent and his assistant stole over $11 million in tax dollars.

This movie catches me unawares, when I saw that it was a true story I was really captivated to see how everything was really going to go down. The movie is well scripted not to leave room for the viewer to get bored. Things are happening at a steady pace, exciting and easy to follow. Very soon before your eyes the character which seems to be the moral fiber, decays before you to reveal a dark, insensitive and cruel person you should be scared of.

The director Cory Finley does his best to hold the movie before you and not let slip the main evil in the end. When the reveal of how deep the corruption is, you are left surprised at the value of money stolen.

Based on a real life event, I just wonder what would have happened or how long this embezzlement would have continued if the school paper had not investigated.

We meet Dr. Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) a superintendent of the Roslyn Union Free School District on Long Island. Frank is charismatic, friendly and his co-workers, the school board, parents and students love him. The assistant superintendent Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney) oversees the projects that the school district is involved in, the main on now is a skywalk.

The skywalk project is part of the many projects that the school board with the guidance of Frank and Pam have been doing with the aim of making Roslyn school number one in the country. Frank believes in appearances, which is very obvious in the way he dresses and carries himself. So projects that brings attention to the school and make it look classy are things that truly excite him.

The local school paper is doing a write-up on the new skywalk a write-up led by a student named Rachel. As she is doing her digging, an unrelated event led to Pam’s life getting exposed as a lax in judgment caused her to allows her family use a school expense card at their own will. This led to her son making such a huge purchase for home improvement without thinking, which caught the attention of the school board. This began a domino effect to which you will have to see the movie to know how it will play out.

This is a fine movie to see, and I encourage you to.