BAD EDUCATION - Potential SPOILERS

[njr]

I also noticed how they were making Hugh look older, then later younger (which was really just his true self!) I had not read any of these Spoiler threads prior to watching the movie last night, and all I knew was that Hugh’s and Allison’s characters embezzled money from the school. Was pleasantly surprised that there was much more to the story than just that. I’m not really sure if Hugh’s performance would have gotten him an Oscar, but hopefully an Emmy!

Nancy

[jo]

This is an article from INDIEWIRE that every teacher and every student would find worthwhile reading.

Teaching has been called the noblest profession … but how many even realize their devotion to their calling?


www.indiewire.com/2020/04/bad-education-hbo-true-story-real-spoilers-1202227362/

HBO’s ‘Bad Education’ Is an Unexpected Evisceration of Our Broken School System

HBO's big TIFF acquisition is a slick movie about outlandish swindlers, but anyone arguing that's the full story is scamming you.

Ben Travers
Apr 25, 2020 8:30 pm
@benttravers


[Editor’s Note: The following article contains spoilers for HBO’s “Bad Education.”]

The climax of “Bad Education” is both entirely expected and utterly bizarre.

After spending nearly 90 minutes carefully divulging secret after treacherous secret, steadily building to a con artist’s just comeuppance, Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) walks into Roslyn High School and comes face to face with his worst nightmare. Students who once high-fived their beloved superintendent are left agape in judgmental astonishment; co-workers who would’ve followed him into fire now demand his resignation; parents boo him off the stage during an explanatory assembly. As Frank walks back to his office, glancing into the conference room where he once received congratulatory fruit baskets and posed for pictures with appreciative colleagues, he only sees FBI agents combing through records. And those records expose more than $2 million Frank embezzled from the Long Island school.


This is it. All movie fans recognize this as the moment when the con artist finally gets busted. And as Frank reaches for his office door, you just know there’s a herd of cops waiting on the other side to slap him in cuffs. Except when Frank opens his eyes, there’s no lurking sheriff; there’s just Mrs. Carol Schweitzer, poised with another complaint about her young son Chad’s education. She’s already met with Frank once, last fall, when he graciously offered to let the struggling student retake a test and put Chad on the placement track his mother demanded, despite what his teachers advised. So what does Frank do, when a parent’s relatively minor and totally outrageous complaint arrives at the very moment his life is falling apart? He stops to teach the kid how to pronounce the word “accelerate.”


Why? Because “Bad Education” isn’t just telling a juicy true story about a salacious scandal; it’s making a point about our broken American school system, the abuse teachers are forced to take, and the madness it can drive them toward.
Frank Tassone, as seen in “Bad Education,” is two men at once. The Frank we first meet is fully dedicated to his job. He spends late nights at the office memorizing names of various teachers, administrators, and students. He shares his many gifts with the staff and always puts his best face forward in public. When there’s a work trip to Las Vegas, his colleagues skip the monotonous conference lectures in favor of hitting the craps tables — but not Frank. He pays close attention, takes notes, and even stays after to bend the speaker’s ear.


His goal in life is the same as his goal at work — help others succeed — and our first hint toward Frank’s duplicitous nature comes when the supposed widower runs into an old student, Kyle Contreras (played by Rafael Casal), and makes a move. Up until that point, Frank presents as straight, telling curious women he’s a still-wounded widower. So is Frank stuck in the closet, just coming to terms with his sexuality, or is there more going on we don’t know about?


Obviously, it’s the latter, but Frank and Kyle’s relationship isn’t just there to hint at Frank’s secretive nature; it’s another example of his complete dedication to his students. Frank only suggests they go back to his room when Kyle, a once-promising writer back when Frank taught him in English, admits his life hasn’t worked out the way he hoped. That means his life didn’t work out like Frank hoped either; that his efforts weren’t enough. In a flash, you can see Frank’s intentions shift, as though he’s only attracted to Kyle because he thinks he can still help him succeed, all these years later.


Would they have still hooked up if Kyle had become a famous science-fiction author? Maybe not. What Frank wants more than anything is to help his students, and even when the financial scandal starts to surface, “Bad Education” marks a clear dichotomy between Frank’s motivations and those of his primary accomplice. Pam Gluckin, the assistant superintendent played with pitch-perfect smarm, apprehension, and umbrage by Allison Janney, represents greed, while Frank represents corruption. Both overlap with one another at times, but she’s the one throwing lavish parties at her seaside mansion; she’s the one paying for her cousin’s Christmas presents on the school credit card; she’s the one who, when it’s all summed up, embezzled twice as much as Frank.

Frank, though, is no martyr, and the movie never paints him as such. Writer Mike Makowsky, who was a student at Roslyn when the scandal broke, picks and chooses what we know about Frank in order to show how he got away with the con for so long, sure, but also because he’s making a point through the character, not a biopic about him. “Bad Education” isn’t “The Frank Tassone Story”; it’s a sagacious study of what caused this unprecedented event, and once Frank and Pam’s radical misconduct is exposed, that’s when we start to see their damning similarities.


While Pam lets loose her indignation to more spectacular extremes — trying to beat up her oblivious son (played by the young master of 20-something dummies, Jimmy Tatro) for screwing up their remodel and sitting in contemptuous silence as her family tears open their Christmas presents — Frank’s expenditures are largely tied to his work. He buys expensive suits to look good for school events; he eats costly meals to impress benefactors and maintain his healthy sheen; he even lives in a pricey New York apartment to avoid stirring controversy over his lifestyle. The film makes clear that Frank grossly overindulges while illustrating why he feels entitled to such perks — the $20,000 trip to Europe was for work, so who cares if he flew first-class and brought a “friend”? Doesn’t he deserve a few perks for a life spent in service to everyone else?

“Bad Education” offers a resounding “no,” while inviting audiences to consider what exactly those perks should be. If we want our teachers and school administrators to get the results that Frank does — the No. 4 school district in the country! more admissions to Ivy League colleges than ever! — then the effort we demand of them has to mirror the recognition offered. To start the movie, Frank is shown entering a crowded auditorium to a rapturous standing ovation. At the end, he dreams of being on that stage again. But applause clearly isn’t enough; not for what he did or what he dreamed of doing; not for a lifetime of dealing with people like Mrs. Schweitzer, who stands in front of a man in crisis and complains that her son’s teacher made his test harder out of “spite.” She’s not only taking Frank for granted, but everyone who’s carved time out of their own lives to help a student.


“My problem? My problem is you,” Frank says. “It’s the people who trot their poor children out like race horses at Belmont; who derive some perverse joy out of treating us like low-level service reps. Do you remember the teachers who sat with you, who held you by the hand, who taught you to add and subtract, or showed you Gatsby and Salinger, for the first time — Mockingbird even? Do their names escape you? Are their faces a blur? […] You might forget, but we don’t. We never forget. Ever.”

As millions of Americans are homeschooling their kids, it took just 71 minutes of teaching for super-producer Shonda Rhimes to argue that educators deserve $1 billion a year — “or a week.” It’s a position almost everyone can get behind, yet it’s gone widely ignored on a national scale. It’s also the same frustrating feeling Frank finally reveals when he confronts Mrs. Schweitzer. Somewhere between the fleeting applause and egregious embezzlement lies proper acknowledgement for our inexhaustible educators, and “Bad Education” serves as a searing reminder that we still haven’t found it.
After all, Frank’s only a con artist because he spent a lifetime being overlooked.

[jo]

Apr 26, 2020 11:05:55 GMT -5 jo said:

tv.avclub.com/cory-finley-on-bad-education-capitalism-and-hugh-jack-1843031267

The A.V. Club

Interview
Cory Finley on Bad Education, capitalism, and Hugh Jackman’s walk of shame

Bad Education's Cory Finley and Ray Romano on teachers who turn to crime

Danette Chavez
Today 8:00AM

>
>
>


AVC: There’s another key scene towards the end of the movie: Frank walks into the school the day the article’s out in the school paper. It’s this great, unnerving long take. We saw a similar walk for Allison Janney’s character, Pam Gluckin, early in the film, but it’s nowhere near as long because her fall from grace really isn’t as steep as Frank’s.

CF: Yeah, it’s one of the things that makes the character tragic—you sense that in the act of pulling the wool over other people’s eyes, he was also pulling the wool over his own eyes. He genuinely did seem to believe that the embezzlement was acceptable or that he was sort of owed this money to some degree, that it was within his rights as an administrator. Reading about it, I do think there was an element of that that was sincere. It wasn’t just a cover. To some degree, it was understandable because I do think educators in general are wildly under-compensated and under-appreciated in this country—maybe less so for top superintendents, but nevertheless. So that image was really powerful for me, to imagine that even sort of the final moments before his real downfall, everyone else in the school would somehow be aware of what he’d done before he knew that the news was out. That he’d have all these eyes on him. That even after that downfall, when he’s on the bleachers talking to Ray [Romano]’s character, that he is continuing to just burrow deeper into the self-delusion that what he did was totally acceptable. That made the character very sympathetic to me.

I was more impressed with the juxtaposition of Frank Tassone's initial victorious walk and the imaginary final walk to the student assembly ( the scenes that framed the entire movie).

I can't get over Hugh's facial expression and body language as he walked in prison for that imaginary and surreal walk to that student assembly hall. Did Tassone become a little crazy ? Or was that simply artistic licence from Cory Finley. He and that AVClub interviewer made much more of the contrasting walks ( with that charcoal drink in hand) as 2 very different experiences. I am more inclined to look at the beginning and ending screenshots as the real meat of this story. As I have earlier said, Tassone seemed more like the product of a dream that became blemished ( strongly) by corruption.

Jo

[jo]

Sending a twitter message to the AMPAS --

[jo]

And my reader review on Amazon:Prime ( they are making it available via a subscription to HBO) --

Customer Review

Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars

Excellent storytelling of true events, with remarkable portrayals especially from Hugh Jackman!
Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2020

This is an exceptional and thought-provoking retelling of true events in a public school system in New York state, seen through character studies of key persons in the criminal malfeasance case and of a community 's perhaps unintended participation in how the scandal was perpetrated. The major actor in the story is a school superintendent whose primary goal is for his school to reach the lofty rankings of schools in America, thus affording benefits to its student body and the community where it happened. But at what price? It is actually a provocative tale, seen through a sharply-written Black List script, with finely-honed direction, and a remarkable and exceptional performance from Hugh Jackman, who is very ably supported by Allison Janney, Ray Romano and the rest of the cast. Jackman is emerging is one of this generation's most versatile actor/performers, be it film or stage! This portrayal is layered and very different from the other genres where he has excelled. The team-up with Janney is also an inspired idea! The rest of the actors came from film, TV and the Broadway stage - an excellent amalgmation of talent!

[jo]

Btw, the actress who plays Carol, the always-anxious MOM of the boy ( who could not pronounce A-C-C-E-L-E-R-A-T-E) was an original cast member of THE BOY FROM OZ in 2003/04. She is Stephanie Kurtzuba who was one of the trio members performing with Peter and was also an understudy in the role of Judy Garland.

But she is more involved in movies and TV these days.


Jo

[jo]

I thought I have posted the radio clip... but now I am not sure where.

Michael Riedel and Len Berman interview, with a brief description of key issues

710wor.iheart.com/featured/len-berman-and-michael-riedel-in-the-morning/content/2020-04-24-hugh-jackman-in-hbos-bad-education-it-was-a-gut-feeling/

[njr]

Could someone post the extra scene from BE that was filmed, but left out of the movie? Hugh posted it on his Instagram. Thanks.

[jo]

The famous Tassone monologue - A Teacher's Lament!

Frank Tassone: My problem? My problem is you. It's the people who trot their poor children out like race horses at Belmont; who derive some perverse joy out of treating us like low-level service reps. Do you remember the teachers who sat with you, who held you by the hand, who taught you to add and subtract, or showed you Gatsby and Salinger, for the first time? Mockingbird even? Do their names escape you? Are their faces a blur? You might forget, but we don't. We never forget. Ever.

[jo]

USA TODAY finds Hugh Jackman's ( as Frank Tassone) inability to dance too laughable


www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/04/27/hugh-jackman-his-bad-dancing-great-acting-bad-education/3010033001/

Entertainment
TV
Wanna see great acting? Watch Hugh Jackman dance awkwardly in ‘Bad Education’
Bill Keveney
USA TODAY


Most people have trouble dancing well. Hugh Jackman found himself with the opposite problem.

In HBO’s "Bad Education," Jackman disappeared into the character of Roslyn school superintendent Frank Tassone, down to the obsessive anti-aging facial rituals and Long Island accent. But there's one hilarious meta scene where his identity as a Tony Award-winning song-and-dance man broke through the facade:
He had to dance poorly in convincing fashion.

Late in the film, which was inspired by a real-life 2002 school embezzlement scheme, Frank is in a bar with his boyfriend, Kyle (Rafael Casal), who tries to get him on the dance floor.
Interview:HBO's 'Bad Education': How college obsession, corruption combined long before 2019 scandal


Red flag: Frank won't dance. Translation: The man who played P.T. Barnum in the 2017 film musical "The Greatest Showman" has to make believe he doesn't want to dance.

Frank eventually goes along with his partner's wishes.

Second red flag: Frank's not very good. He's stiff and awkward. He seems to get one spin down, but doesn't quite stick the landing. He's rough.

The two-left-feet routine wasn't easy for Jackman, who did plenty of dancing in his 2019 international concert tour, "Hugh Jackman. The Man. The Music. The Show."

Song and dance:How to watch Hugh Jackman in 'Oklahoma!' and other live shows in coronavirus quarantine
Jackman, who won a Tony singing and dancing in 2004's "The Boy From Oz" and received praise for film musicals such as "Les Miserables" and "The Greatest Showman," found the humor in the situation, too.


"At one point, (director Cory Finley) said, 'Do some spins.' So I did some spins and he goes, 'Can you not land the spins like you're doing?' So, I said, 'Let's go again,'" Jackman says.
In the film, Frank finally gets his groove on, at least a bit, and starts a pretty smooth spin – until it goes off course slightly at the end.

"Exactly," the dancer says, remembering the forced slip as if it were a fresh wound. "A little bit of a wobble."
Jackman had better shake off that wobble quickly. He's supposed to start rehearsals for "The Music Man" in June with Broadway previews starting in September. However, due to the COVID-19 restrictions, "No one really knows what's going to happen."

[jo]

Apropos to the preceding post --




Fast-forward to 2'00"

[jo]

Apr 27, 2020 4:29:03 GMT -5 jo said:

Sending a twitter message to the AMPAS --

Oops -- is it mad of me to think that I was able to send the right smoke signals


deadline.com/2020/04/oscars-academy-board-of-governors-rules-changes-coronavirus-1202918866/

Awardsline
Oscars
Oscars: Academy Board Of Governors To Meet And Announce Eligibility And Rules Changes As Coronavirus Continues Rocking Industry

By Pete Hammond

Pete Hammond
Awards Columnist/Chief Film Critic


April 27, 2020 12:49pm


On Tuesday morning, exactly 10 months to the day before the 93rd annual Academy Awards on February 28, 2021, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ board of governors will gather virtually to discuss and approve changes in rules for eligibility and other issues regarding the next Oscar show. It comes amid the coronovirus shutdown that has forced a rethink of plans from just about every corner of the entertainment industry.


The April meeting was originally scheduled for April 14, but as Deadline reported at the time was delayed two weeks. I am told that not just the Academy but also many board members needed some more time out before proceeding. Following the Tuesday meeting, AMPAS will provide the answers to what the press, until now, has only been able to speculate on, like one click-bait headline over the weekend that asked, “Will The 2021 Oscars Be Cancelled?”



Sources tell me to expect not just eligibility changes (especially in light of all the ways movies are currently debuting directly on VOD and streaming platforms such as Netflix) but also likely some surprising and significant changes regarding categories themselves. What these changes will be are anyone’s guess, but due to the exodus entirely of many films from the 2020 release calendar, and perhaps several others currently weighing options to switch to VOD and streaming rather than first going theatrical (Judd Apatow’s The King of Staten Island was just announced as the second Universal film to skip theatrical and go straight to VOD, following Trolls World Tour, and Sony sold Seth Rogen’s latest to HBO Max), these changes are by anyone’s account necessary, and depending on world events out of everyone’s control may not even be enough. In that regard, I am told all the answers likely won’t come tomorrow as this is a fluid situation.



When first asked last month about making any alterations to its normally stringent requirements of eligibility — for most categories a consecutive seven-day run in a theater in Los Angeles County — the Academy issued a statement portending flexibility. “We are in the process of evaluating all aspects of this uncertain landscape and what changes may need to be made. We are committed to being nimble and forward-thinking as we discuss what is best for the future of the industry and will make further announcements in the coming days,” an Academy spokesperson said.




Now, nearly six weeks later, we are on the verge of getting the first concrete word since that lone statement. And indeed AMPAS officials have been working this entire time to come up with a plan. When you consider that the next Oscars are so far away — set nearly a full year after COVID-19 first shut down the industry and the country — you would think they probably in theory would not be severely affected. After all, the Television Academy has a much more pressing issue with the Primetime Emmys scheduled for September 20 (with two Creative Arts Emmys ceremonies the week before) and have made no public statement about canceling or, more likely, altering the format other than some relatively minor eligibility and rules tweaks of their own.


The New York TV Academy did experiment with a virtual live-streamed Emmy ceremony that seemed to go well this past weekend, and you have to believe that the TV Academy is looking at a new-age kind of format ahould an Emmy show as usual not be possible. I would imagine every awards-giving organization is probably trying to come up with some emergency blueprint to stay on course, as it were. For instance, ABC broadcasts the Oscars and is currently showing with its series American Idol that it is possible to take a live TV event and re-imagine it without taking a ratings hit. The NFL did it with the drafts last week and, if you ask me, actually made it work better than the previous format. Something similar down the road is needed to keep the Oscars on track if a re-occurrence in the of COVID-19 outbreaks in the fall or winter forces a change in plans. A virtual Oscars? Hmmmmm. Let’s hope though for the sake of the world and human life it doesn’t have to come to that, and our lives are closer to normal by then. The Academy proved recently with its $6 million contribution to the Actors Fund, Motion Picture & Television Fund and its own foundation to help those most in need at this time that some things take precedence, even over what happens with the Oscars.


Nevertheless, the Academy Awards are enormously important in terms of encouraging the making of movies good enough to be nominated and win (coronavirus cannot destroy egos in this town). The big picture of what films will look like continues to be a pressing question that affects every aspect of the so-called awards season, which is supposed to begin in September with the fall film festivals in Venice, Telluride, Toronto, New York, etc. Actually, as last year proved with Parasite winning the Palme d’Or and then becoming the first film since Marty in 1955 to also eventually take the Best Picture Oscar, it really could begin at Cannes. But that now-twice-postponed 2020 edition that was to have started three weeks from now is looking to be a shell of its normal self when it figures out how to proceed if at all, and what effect that will have on the contest for Oscar’s International Feature Film category is another question with which the Academy likely is grappling. Venice, in one of the hardest hit places in the world, is determined to do something, but will it have its usual importance to the Oscar race itself? The same goes for Telluride and Toronto and what impact they can have, but it doesn’t seem likely to be business as usual. It’s all speculation at this point, but that is what we are left with as April turns to May.



No matter what changes are made for the Oscars, it still comes down to the movies themselves and, unless the changes being approved by the board are beyond anyone’s experience in the entire history of the Academy, how they can get into theaters. The AMC exhibition chain for one has said it will not reopen until there is major studio product to show — and that means by all accounts Warner Bros’ still hoped-for and planned July 17 release of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. Nolan is one of the industry’s biggest cheerleaders for the theatrical experience, and if this can happen on schedule we may be on the road to recovery and an Oscar season we might recognize. It could also help propel Nolan’s new film (still sight unseen, mind you) into the race as the first real Best Picture contender.


It might be helpful to remember that even with all this speculation of how ever-changing events will affect an Oscar show 10 months away, last year the first of what would become nine Best Picture nominees, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood , didn’t even open until July 26, three months from where we are right now. And the other eight nominees didn’t begin their theatrical runs until October. Let’s look on the bright side.

Let's all hope that any rule changes will allow BAD EDUCATION to compete for Oscar honors


Jo

[jo]

If you'd like to know the detailed factual background to Bad Education --


www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/bad-education/

[jo]

Apr 27, 2020 15:57:34 GMT -5 jo said:

USA TODAY finds Hugh Jackman's ( as Frank Tassone) inability to dance too laughable


www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/04/27/hugh-jackman-his-bad-dancing-great-acting-bad-education/3010033001/

Entertainment
TV
Wanna see great acting? Watch Hugh Jackman dance awkwardly in ‘Bad Education’
Bill Keveney
USA TODAY


Most people have trouble dancing well. Hugh Jackman found himself with the opposite problem.

In HBO’s "Bad Education," Jackman disappeared into the character of Roslyn school superintendent Frank Tassone, down to the obsessive anti-aging facial rituals and Long Island accent. But there's one hilarious meta scene where his identity as a Tony Award-winning song-and-dance man broke through the facade:
He had to dance poorly in convincing fashion.

Late in the film, which was inspired by a real-life 2002 school embezzlement scheme, Frank is in a bar with his boyfriend, Kyle (Rafael Casal), who tries to get him on the dance floor.
Interview:HBO's 'Bad Education': How college obsession, corruption combined long before 2019 scandal


Red flag: Frank won't dance. Translation: The man who played P.T. Barnum in the 2017 film musical "The Greatest Showman" has to make believe he doesn't want to dance.

Frank eventually goes along with his partner's wishes.

Second red flag: Frank's not very good. He's stiff and awkward. He seems to get one spin down, but doesn't quite stick the landing. He's rough.

The two-left-feet routine wasn't easy for Jackman, who did plenty of dancing in his 2019 international concert tour, "Hugh Jackman. The Man. The Music. The Show."

Song and dance:How to watch Hugh Jackman in 'Oklahoma!' and other live shows in coronavirus quarantine
Jackman, who won a Tony singing and dancing in 2004's "The Boy From Oz" and received praise for film musicals such as "Les Miserables" and "The Greatest Showman," found the humor in the situation, too.


"At one point, (director Cory Finley) said, 'Do some spins.' So I did some spins and he goes, 'Can you not land the spins like you're doing?' So, I said, 'Let's go again,'" Jackman says.
In the film, Frank finally gets his groove on, at least a bit, and starts a pretty smooth spin – until it goes off course slightly at the end.

"Exactly," the dancer says, remembering the forced slip as if it were a fresh wound. "A little bit of a wobble."
Jackman had better shake off that wobble quickly. He's supposed to start rehearsals for "The Music Man" in June with Broadway previews starting in September. However, due to the COVID-19 restrictions, "No one really knows what's going to happen."

[jo]

Some sidelight commentaries from TIFF (Toronto International Film Fest) where BAD EDUCATION had its world premiere -- scroll down for a series of individual tweets focusing on the movie and some behind-the-scenes info.


twitter.com/TIFF_NET


It starts ( actually ends) with this final tweet --

please continue to scroll for the rest, using this url --

twitter.com/TIFF_NET

[njr]

Apr 27, 2020 10:45:14 GMT -5 njr said:

Could someone post the extra scene from BE that was filmed, but left out of the movie? Hugh posted it on his Instagram. Thanks.

This is the scene Hugh posted on Twitter:

Nancy

[jo]

It is very disappointing that BAD EDUCATION will NOT qualify for Oscar consideration under the temporarily allowed changes by the AMPAS, which require that films originally released on VOD or streaming should have had a planned theatrical release ( which failed to happen) during the period when theaters remain closed in general.

deadline.com/2020/04/oscars-major-changes-academy-awards-coronavirus-1202919950/

The sale of the film rights distribution to HBO by those $$$-oriented producers was well-documented after the Toronto festival.




Jo

[jo]

The real Frank Tassone, the man portrayed by Hugh Jackman in the new HBO film “Bad Education,” says he thought Jackman did a “good job” portraying him but criticized how the film approached his sexuality and domestic partnership.

“Bad Education” tells the true story of a Long Island superintendent who embezzled $2.2 million of taxpayer money from the school district. The real Tassone, who was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for larceny but was released on good behavior in 2010, spoke on the Coach Mike Podcast with host Mike Bayer and said that only about “40-50%” of “Bad Education” is accurate.

“He did a very good job portraying me,” Tassone said on the podcast, even thanking Jackman for defending his work as a superintendent during a recent appearance on “Today.” “I think he did a good job playing me, especially at the end when I’m in prison and I walk out and I see what I lost because I did something so terrible. And that really hit home for me.”

More...

[jo]

[jo]

Jeff Sneider singles out Bad Education as being disqualified for Oscar honors despite its artistic achievement --


collider.com/oscars-2021-rule-changes-explained-digital-releases-eligible/

Excerpts --

Oscars 2021: Academy Relaxes Eligibility Rules for VOD Titles, Combines Sound Categories
by Jeff Sneider April 28, 2020


The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences convened its Board of Governors on Tuesday morning and made several temporary changes to the Oscars ceremony, especially with regards to eligibility.
Movies that debut on VOD and streaming services will now be eligible for the Academy Awards so long as they were scheduled for theatrical release at one point. That means that Universal’s Trolls World Tour, which skipped theaters in favor of a VOD release, will be eligible for the Best Animated Feature award, but HBO’s Hugh Jackman drama Bad Education, which is one of the best films of the year, would not be eligible because it was never intended to play in theaters. All of those VOD/streaming titles will have to be made available to Academy voters via the organization’s members-only streaming service, Academy Screening Room, within 60 days of their non-theatrical debut. Once theaters do reopen, all of those films will be required to book a seven-day run in theaters in order to be eligible. There will be a backlog of titles once theaters reopen, so rather than require a week-long booking in Los Angeles, the Academy is adding five more qualifying cities — New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami and Atlanta.

[jo]

Clips of Frank Tassone being interviewed. I think he is supposed to be 73 years old now. He praised Hugh's portrayal...and Hugh's kind words in a promo interview.

dailyvoice.com/new-york/mountpleasant/schools/real-bad-education-superintendent-speaks-out-about-hbo-movie-hugh-jackmans-portrayal/787257/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[njr]

Yes, Frank Tassone was born in 1947.

www.wikicelebs.com/frank-tassone/

Nancy

[jo]

Lol - it is trying to slip away from the clutches of HBO

[jo]

[jo]

Do you remember the school mom who tried to make a pass at Frank Tassone

Katherine Narducci, in real life, has a few nice things to say about the man she almost got to kiss

www.goldderby.com/article/2020/kathrine-narducci-bad-education-interview-the-irishman/

GD (Gold Derby): I know you have a small role in the new Hugh Jackman/Alison Janney HBO film “Bad Education.” And you try to kiss him?

KN: “That was so exciting for me because who doesn’t love Hugh Jackman? Extremely down to earth and kind. He gave everyone on the crew lottery tickets. It’s just something he does, I guess. He lives in New York and loves New York. But he’s one of those actors who is not aware of how big a star he is. Humble — that’s how Marty [Scorsese] and Bob [De Niro] are. I think the bigger you are the less you have to prove, you know?”

GD: So I won’t give away why, but there’s no kiss. And what about the lotto tickets?

KN: (Laughs) “I wanted to get at least one smack on the lips with that guy, but it wasn’t to be. And I didn’t win the lottery, so I struck out twice.”