BAD EDUCATION : Official Reviews ( SPOILERS)

[jo]

This is funny -- it is an excellent podcast review, highlighting the key assets of the movie--

but look what they show as the image representing the movie

soundcloud.com/user-782049152/bad-education-review-hbo-peter-canavese-celluloid-dreams-the-movie-show-42720-screen-scene

Haha!

[jo]

It's all about the Jackman charisma!


gritdaily.com/bad-education/

News
Culture


Hugh Jackman is the Perfect Villain
Posted by Jack Giroux | Apr 27, 2020


We all love Hugh Jackman. Everyone and their grandma can’t help but to fall for the Jackman charm. He exudes goodness in a town defined largely by bad behavior. He’s one of the good guys, which is why he’s the perfect man to play one of the bad guys. In the new HBO film, Bad Education, Jackman uses his public persona as the ultimate weapon.


What is Bad Education?

Jackman is a silent but deadly threat as Frank Tassone, a Long Island school superintendent with a broad smile hiding sinister motives. Based on a true story, Tassone stole millions from taxpayers and the school system. How’d he get away with it? Mostly, with charm. Directed by Cory Finley (Thoroughbreds), Bad Education is a chilling tale about a sociopath. It’s American Psycho in the suburbs.


Everybody Loves Frank

Everybody loves Frank. Nobody could ever fathom the man in the nice suits, with a pleasant smile, and the “dream big” attitude could do such a horrible thing. He uses charm to hide his true self. For the first act of Bad Education, Jackman makes the audience feel like his co-workers and students: you’re won over by his charisma. He makes people feel good about themselves and believe in themselves, strategically. Even when the cracks in his mask first appear, you still want to see the good in this very charming, seemingly caring man. Slowly, the story chillingly reveals his true nature and, like his friends and co-workers, you feel betrayed for giving him the benefit of the doubt.



Who is Frank?

It’s an incredible, career-defining performance from Jackman. He raises so many questions and creates such a sense of mystery around Frank for a large portion of Bad Education. There are moments where we see goodness in Frank, but is it always manufactured? Is there anything inside this greedy, sociopathic man that is real? No, but most of Bad Education, you still want to see that side of the character come alive. It’s never going to, but you desperately want it to.



The World’s Greatest Showman

Frank is a huckster, which is why the man who played the world’s greatest showman was the perfect actor for the part. Jackman is, above all else, a showman, just like Frank. It’s a perfect marriage between role and performer. Charisma is Jackman’s bread and butter, again, just like Frank. Everything that’s pure about the performer and public persona gets twisted to stunning results in Bad Education.



Jackman’s History of Darkness

Jackman is far more than his nice guy persona, though. It’s hardly the only brand of character he’s played. In the past, whenever Jackman goes to the darkside, that’s when we see him at his most magnetic. Arguably, that’s even true for his portrayal of Wolverine, but in The Prestige, Prisoners, and a movie directed by a disgraced director I won’t name, the actor exudes a distinct intensity entirely of his own.


Jackman is a big guy, so if he wants to intimidate someone, whether a co-worker or even a student in this case, it’s frightening. But it’s that charm, that likability, that charisma that makes him so much more than a standard villain, not his size. There’s something about that classic and, more importantly, genuine movie star smile that makes a villain all the more frightening. Jackman is one of the good guys, but after Bad Education, he’s now one of our favorite bad guys.

Is the distinct intensity abovementioned be what described by James Mangold as Hugh Jackman's "incredible masculinity" or it more of the Wolverine persona people identify him with ?

Jo

[jo]

XMen-2 is on our local HBO. It is very apparent why Hugh's personification of the badass Wolverine can be a little terrifying. It is all in his facial and body language. In his manner of speaking. One lift of that eyebrow or those brows knitted over piercing eyes... the way his body moves, especially when he is feral as Wolverine, sends out that " distinct intensity" vibe! Maybe his portrayal over the years of Wolverine solidified the image of his occasionally terrifying demeanor and an inscrutable dark side in his roles?

Jo

[jo]

In a sense his portrayal of VAN HELSING further bolstered that "distinct intensity" image!

Translated by Google --

Little is said about how gorgeous Hugh Jackman is in Van Helsing. Now on Four.

It seems this is the guilty pleasure movie from his early days in Hollywood.


Jo

[jo]

A YouTube review --

[jo]

I responded to the review from FirstCut and the head critic LIKED my reply --

[jo]

overcrankedreviews.wordpress.com/2020/05/19/bad-education-review/

Overcranked
Movie Reviews


Bad Education Review: Jackman at His Best

Date: May 19, 2020
Author: Gavin O'Neil

Sometimes what you see isn’t always what you get.
This has never rung more true than in the case of Frank Tassone, the superintendent of Roslyn public schools in Long Island, New York. After assuming the role of superintendent, he was able to propel Roslyn High School into the top 5 rankings of public high schools in the nation. Admired by all and praised for his success, Tassone had been hiding a dark secret from the town this whole time.

Bad Education depicts the nearly $10 million embezzlement scandal that was unearthed by the school’s newspaper. Superintendent Frank Tassone is played by the incredible Hugh Jackman with one of his best performances ever. Tassone is a con-man and manages to hide the millions he and his Assistant-Superintendent, Pamela Gluckin (Allison Janney), have been taking from the school budget. Jackman is dangerously charismatic when playing Tassone; he knows the name and interests of every student in the school, he is looked at with awe during book club meetings with the local parents – one of them even makes a pass at him. Everyone in the town believes he is an honest and genuine man, and they all look up to him for his accomplishments with the district. In the beginning, Jackman’s performance even almost fools the audience into thinking that he’s a good guy. But under his charm and impressive accomplishments lies the dark secret of his second life. Through a Roslyn High School reporter, Rachel Bhargava (Geraldine Vishwanathan), the scandal is brought to the public’s attention.


While it’s the driving force of the story, the weakest parts of Bad Education come from following Bhargava. We get the most eye-rolling moments in these scenes, like the classic high school “papers fall out of someone’s bag and another person finds out what they’re hiding while helping them clean it up” trope and even a moment when she is walking into a hotel and the shot cuts to a literal taxi-calling whistleblower. On top of that, in a pivotal moment when she is deciding if she should publish her findings on the embezzlement, she has an unrelated conversation with her father. She asks him about his past in which he was involved in a money-laundering scandal, and he tells her that his biggest regret wasn’t speaking up, which feels all too convenient. The weaker writing in this part of the film is due to Bhargava not being a real person and that they had to write in a new character. In reality, it was the whole club that uncovered it and it wasn’t so reliant on one person.

Even with a lackluster reporting plot, the film more than redeems itself when following Frank Tassone. Jackman is a delight to watch on the screen and perfectly portrays the Patrick Bateman-esque superintendent who manipulates everybody he knows. The careful scenes of tense and eerie dialogue between Tassonne and other public school workers are enough to make your skin crawl. As more and more about the scandal is uncovered, so too is the true character of the once-loved superintendent. Jackman knows when to hold back to let the subtle cunningness of Tassone shine through but to also show us his moments of rage.

Just like the controlled performance of Jackman, director Cory Finley shows excellent restraint in his storytelling. With a scandal like this, it would be all too easy to immediately open the flood gates of chaos with screaming school workers and protesting parents. But what we get is a calm and collected study of a man that sees his entire life crumble before his eyes. The real chaos comes from watching the characters interact with each other as they find out the truth of their once-perfect superintendent. Bad Education could have been just another entry into the scandal genre of movies but it pulled itself out of that hole to deliver a very satisfying and intense experience.

I agree with his comment that the reporter's uncovering the scandal all on her own was too contrived. Especially the coincidence of her seeing Tassone get into his apartment. Also, for a plush Park Avenue residence building like that, can one really just get into the floors without being allowed by the front desk or security ( they usually will have one for luxury apartments) which will likely check with the resident if the visitor will be allowed to see him. Park Avenue is the showcase avenue of Manhattan!

The one thing which seemed to have turned her doubt as to whether she should report what she had uncovered … was what her father told her of his role in the insider trading scandal ( not money laundering as perceived by the reviewer) in which he was NOT involved but he chose to keep quiet about how it was happening. He did lose his job.

Jo

[jo]

A review from Australia

Engrossing school drama ‘Bad Education’ digs deep into a true-life corruption scandal
May 25, 2020
Jim Schembri

Teachable moment: Hugh Jackman plays a slick school administrator in the drama ‘Bad Education’.
BAD EDUCATION ***1/2 (107 minutes) MA

It’s a generalization, of course, but most films dealing with education tend to champion the positive and inspirational aspects of school life, of how teachers can change lives for the better, of how even the most down-trodden students can rise above their circumstances, given the right leadership.


Bad Education does not fit neatly into that pattern.


Set in the early 2000s and based on a true story, Bad Education takes us into the modest corridors and offices of Roslyn High in Long Island, New York.

Once considered a sub-standard dump, the place might not look like much – its ceilings leak – but its community standing has been transformed into a shining example of scholastic redemption.

The school’s new-found success with its students and the local officials who keep passing its growing budgets are due to aggressive can-do management by its slick superintendent Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) and his hard-working assistant Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney).

For much of the film’s opening reel nothing appears to be wrong at the school as everyone shuffles about getting on with things, processing paperwork and counselling students.



Then, in a tiny, unguarded moment, Tassone offers a word of advice to Rachel (Australian actress Geraldine Viswanathan), a student reporter doing a piece on a proposed walkway, an ambitious project that will arc over the school.
She sheepishly admits it’s a non-critical “puff” piece, yet Tassone suggests she should follow her nose and go in stronger and do some investigating.

Why he does this is never explained but it turns out to be a cataclysmic error of judgment, a pebble in a pond with ripple effects that swell into a tsunami.

Following his advice she begins uncovering details that point to misappropriation of funds and criminal misconduct involving senior management.

The pacing of the snowball effect is exquisitely judged, beginning slowly before gathering speed until the scandal begins claiming scalps and exposing a long-standing culture of neglect and opportunism.
Despite what much have been a strong temptation to take the sarcastic route of Alexander Payne’s vaguely similar 1999 high school satire Election, director Cory Finley (who did the laudable black comedy Thoroughbreds) takes a straight bat to the shenanigans.



The slow reveal of the nature and extent of the crimes is engrossing, as are the attempts to cover them up as Finley applies increasing emphasis on what emerges as the film’s key theme, namely the wholesale abuse of trust innocently invested in Tassone and Gluckin by the students, their parents and colleagues. Most aggreived among these collateral victims is school board head Bob Spicer, played nicely by comedian Ray Romano.

Finley elicits top-shelf lead performances from Janney, who roils at being exposed, and especially Jackman who puts in great work on par with his underrated turns in Prisoners (2013) and The Front Runner (2018), in which he put in an Oscar-worthy portrayal of scandal-ridden Democrat Gary Hart.


Now deep into the post-Wolverine phase of his career, Jackman, 51, leans heavily into his age, using it to highlight the vanity of someone for whom genuine accomplishment comes with a sense of entitlement to reward himself and his accomplices.
Most telling in what is essentially a cautionary tale is the film’s illustration of how large-scale corruption does not instantly come into being. It starts small and grows by increments that its perpetrators can easily overlook and dismiss. It is only the cool eye of others that suddenly shift matters into a new and damning perspective.



Though the cinematography is not ostentatious, it offers a prime example of the camera as storyteller, with many key plot points being conveyed visually. Kudos to Lyle Vincent.

One notable example occurs in a tracking shot as Tassone arrives at school one morning, oblivious to how the expressions on the faces of the students behind him signal that school today will not be the joy it usually is.

It is often the case – as Richard Nixon so infamously demonstrated to the world – that those caught at the core of a corruption scandal either think they’ve done nothing wrong or had their hands forced by circumstances.

Whatever the case, the contention of those caught with their mitts in the till is that what they did somehow served the greater good. Such rationales demonstrate the power of denial, a theme that runs thick and fast through a biting drama about how just a little bit of power can do a whole lot of wrong.


Bad Education is streaming on Foxtel Now; available to buy on Google Play; YouTube; Microsoft.

[jo]

Review written after the premiere of BAD EDUCATION at the Toronto International Film Festival --

vanyaland.com/2020/04/26/bad-education-review-hugh-jackman-breaks-bad-in-cory-finleys-crime-film/

‘Bad Education’ Review: Hugh Jackman breaks bad in Cory Finley’s crime film


‘Bad Education’ Review: Hugh Jackman breaks bad in Cory Finley’s crime film
By Nick Johnstonon April 26, 2020

Courtesy of TIFF
Editor’s Note: This review originally ran as part of our Toronto International Film Festival coverage. Click here for our extensive coverage from the fest and also check out our full TIFF archives of past coverage.


It’s been a TIFF defined by non-traditional crime films at TIFF this year — diamond dealers in NYC in Uncut Gems, Tourette’s-suffering gumshoes in Motherless Brooklyn, murderous clowns taking a fake NYC to task in Joker — but only one is about the kind of ridiculous fraud that happens in public institutions like school systems, in which taxpayer money is repurposed for any number of grifts by unscrupulous “servants.” That film is Cory Finley’s Bad Education, which based on a true story as documented in a New York Magazine piece by Robert Kolker from a decade ago, and it might be one of the weirdest crime films you’ve seen in some time. It boasts what may be a career-defining performance by Hugh Jackman, who, in a career full of magnetic and fascinating roles, has found a part that requires practically every one of his talents as an actor to run at full-steam, and he pulls it off with style and grace.

It’s the Fall 2002 on Long Island, and in the midst of one of the best years of his professional life, Roslyn superintendent Frank Tassone ( Jackman) has been alerted to a potentially gigantic problem on the horizon. Thanks to her dipshit son (Jimmy Tatro) and his reckless purchases with the company card, it’s been revealed that Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney), a key member of his school system’s staff, has been embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of her 10-plus year career with Roslyn. The school board, led by real estate magnate Bob Spicer (Ray Romano), has convened an emergency meeting in order to decide what to do. It was so simply a just a few hours earlier: they were celebrating being ranked fourth-best high school in the country, making plans for a “skywalk” to make the lives of the students easier, and Tassone was being hailed as one of the best administrators in the country. Now he’s faced with the end of a close friend’s career, and potentially, even worse, his own, now that Rachel Kellog (Geraldine Viswanathan), a junior reporter at the school newspaper, is pursuing the case with a dogged intensity.

Finley, who burst on to the scene a few years back with the astonishingly-assured Thoroughbreds (which we still believe all emo revivalists need to see), feels like an odd choice for the material, but in practice you can understand why he took the project. His removed yet operatic approach works most of the time, but it occasionally doesn’t gel with his subject as well as it should — the scenes of Kellog investigating the school’s misdeeds aren’t nearly as interesting as they could be, though her fights with her editor (Alex Wolff) and his concern about how this whole affair will impact the recommendation letter that Tassone has promised to write him are funny enough — but when he hones in on Jackman and his double life, or Janney’s fracturing relationship with her upper-crust family, or the community’s reactions to the malfeasance occurring within their school system, Bad Education really sings. His screenwriter, Mike Makowsky (who attended the high school while these events were occurring) does a fantastic job of illustrating just how deep the rot goes, showing and implying just how much fruit is spoiling on the vine: Property values will decline if the school system starts to drop, which means tax revenue will go down, which will impact the city’s budget and then residents will begin to leave.


Yet all of this is really Jackman’s show (who has previously played flem-flam men, though not as compellingly as he does here), as Tassone requires every ounce of his charisma in order to perpetuate the con, and the actor is, most assuredly, up to the task. He weaponizes his charm in the early moments, and endows his character with a sense of earnest care about his pupils and the community that he works in: Indeed, his downfall comes because he just so happens to tell a student that she shouldn’t just make “puff” pieces and investigate things as far as she could. Even better, His hesitant romance with a former pupil (Blindspotting’s Rafael Casal) and the subsequent revelations about his closeted sexuality are portrayed with sensitivity and great care by Finley, and it helps to layer an already-complex performance with an interesting added power.

When you finally see the inner snake within Jackson[sic] take over — dodging and weaving out of the way until he finds himself completely cornered — his downfall has a wonderfully tragic dimension to it. Here was a man who cared and cared, and convinced himself that because his intentions were good, it would tip the scales in his favor.

[jo]

Reviews
Bad Education: Hugh Jackman shines in a smart dramedy (Review)

Bernard Ozarowski
May 27, 2020

Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney in Bad Education (HBO)


Bad Education showcases the best film work of Hugh Jackman’s career in the stranger than fiction tale of a conman school superintendent.


I am not sure that I have ever thought of Hugh Jackman as a great film actor. He has always been a tremendously charismatic screen presence, basically the quintessential classic Hollywood leading man. With his classical good looks and stellar song & dance chops, it is easy to envision him slotting somewhere between Gene Kelly and Cary Grant in Hollywood’s Golden Age. He has given great film performances, Logan and The Prestige spring to mind, but he never felt on the level of actors whose mere presence requires my engagement. Bad Education is proof I was wrong.

Telling the true story of a school superintendent, Frank Tassone, who bilked a Long Island township for millions of dollars, Bad Education brings a unique structure to the criminal enterprise movie. Rather than the usual exciting rise into wealth as our protagonist breaks bad, the film picks up in the last year of the scheme as our characters are already deeply embedded in their lifestyle. Slowly, but surely, screenwriter Mike Makowsky (a student at Roslyn high school during Tassone’s real tenure) unravels the layers of the scheme. It is a smart, compelling structure that turns the inevitable, tragic fall into compelling character drama.

Catherine Curtin, Hugh Jackman and Finnerty Steeves in Bad Education (HBO)



Hugh Jackman has never been better. He has generally not been given the chance to play heel in his film roles, but it really suits him. One of director Cory Finley’s (Thoroughbreds) visual motifs sees Jackman viewing himself in the mirror. Each time, be it through the use of a tweezer, a face cream, or a forced expression, we see Jackman putting on his “public” face. Each time, Jackman manages to convey a sense of anger and frustration simmering just beneath the surface of his perfect charming façade. It becomes easy to see how the people around him would have fallen for the man in the mirror, which makes for a crafty subversion of Jackman’s Greatest Showman public persona. When, inevitably, the cracks in his image are laid bare, Jackman does blistering, intense work. It feels like rage, and misplaced victimhood, quite literally pouring out of the performer. He achieves the perfect balance to utterly dominate a scene without resorting to scenery chewing.


Jackman is surrounded by a rogue’s gallery of wonderful supporting performances. Allison Janney (Juno) is superb, per her norm, as Jackman’s deputy superintendent. She, too, is given a full, complex character arc and she knocks out of the park, all while absolutely nailing a pitch perfect Long Island accent and cadence. Much of Bad Education arises from the hubristic prodding of a student by Tassone to treat a school paper assignment to write about a construction project as an opportunity to do real journalistic work. That student, played by the wonderful young actress Geraldine Viswanathan (stellar in last year’s Hala), spends much of the movie as scene sparring partner to Jackman or Janney. A lesser performer may have been consumed by the two stars, but Viswanathan not only holds her own but manages to resonate. Even the film’s lesser roles are populated by splendid actors doing smart, subtle work: Alex Wolff (Hereditary) as the student newspaper editor, Ray Romano (The Irishman) as the head of the schoolboard, Annaleigh Ashford (Showtime’s Masters of Sex) as a secretary in the superintendent’s office. All are given moments to shine.

Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney in Bad Education (HBO)

Bad Education is not perfect. It sometimes struggles with tone – Finley seems torn between a Coens-esque absurd sense of humor and a grimmer character drama. It can lead to a bit of whiplash effect between scenes. The pacing too varies from languid to rocket speed in adjacent scenes. Nevertheless, the film is whip smart on “what it all means.”

The filmmakers turn the school itself into allegory – the ceilings leak rancid water down upon students and teachers as the administration and board plans multimillion-dollar aesthetic enhancements, and vast sums disappear into administrator pockets. Despite all the condemnations of Tassone’s conduct, the reality is that his success at elevating the school district’s ranking – 4th in the nation, as he is quick to remind you! – was worth it for everyone around him. The impressive ranking improved college admissions for students and radically enhanced Roslyn property values. Diminished practical educational facilities are irrelevant if the public idea of the school system looks just right.



Left unsaid is that nobody in the film – or real life – would have traded for a world where administrators did not steal millions. The residents of the community are more than happy to take advantage of Tassone’s conduct, for so long as it benefits them. And I cannot help but point out that the current superintendent of Roslyn schools was more than happy to accept HBO’s checks to film a movie about the moral corruption of her very own school system. Cynical pragmatism remains the norm.


Bad Education: Behind the Scenes (HBO)

Bad Education is now available on HBO and HBO Max.

I think it is not fair to say that Hugh Jackman instantly blossomed into a very fine actor! I think many people's judgment on his acting ability has not been fair in the past because they always perceive him to be nothing but a superhero phenomenon. They think that all it takes to be a classic leading man are good looks and charisma! They think his dramatic forays in The Prestige, The Fountain, and Prisoners were simply flukes. They probably do not think that people who star in musicals are performers not actors -- yet they fail to appreciate the character portrayal that he did in Les Miserables, a full-blown dramatic musical, not a Gene Kelly type song and dance movie. Just like on Broadway - it is only for musicals that he is more appreciated and not as much for the dramatic work that he has done ( acting-wise, plays are a different animal, compared to musical theatre).

Ironic that with practically universal praise for Hugh's acting delivery in this movie, that Oscar statuette is NOT within reach!

End of rant

JO

[jo]

[jo]

A masterpiece!

[jo]

One more very impressed reviewer - especially on Hugh's portrayal!

[jo]

Not just a review, but a deeper look into Hugh Jackman as a dramatic actor --

From ReviewJune 12, 2020

Hugh Jackman, who turns 52 in October, has been nominated for an Oscar once, for his performance as Jean Valjean in Tom Hooper’s 2012 musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. The best actor statuette went, however, to Daniel Day-Lewis as the titular character in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln.


I think Jackman should have at least one other nomination to his credit: as the ageing, brittle Wolverine in James Mangold’s Logan (2017), the best superhero movie I have seen. As it happens, it was Jackman’s Les Miserables co-star, Russell Crowe, who a decade earlier drafted him as Wolverine in the original X-Men movie, after knocking back the role himself.


I also think Jackman deserves an Oscar nomination for his new film, Bad Education, centred on a true-to-life scandal in a New York State school district. He will not receive one, however, unless the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a further rethink about eligibility for next year’s awards.


The academy has agreed that, with the box ­office shut down by COVID-19, movies made available by streaming services such as Netflix will be eligible. The catch, however, is the movie must first have had a scheduled cinema release.


Bad Education, the second movie by American filmmaker Cory Finley (after his dark comic thriller Thoroughbreds in 2017), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September last year. There was talk it would be released in cinemas this May, but then the movie was sold, holus-bolus, to HBO and went straight to digital release.



So the fact the movie was not on the cinema calendar is not a direct result of the pandemic. It’s a direct result of it being sold to HBO for a ­reported $20m. That the academy is within its rights to deny it a run at the Oscars is both true and unfortunate because it is one of Jackman’s best performances.


It is a strong reminder — if we still need it at this stage — that the Sydney song and dance man who first became known to offshore audi­ences in a West End production of Oklahoma!, two years before he became Wolverine, is a serious dramatic actor.


For mine, he is at his best in roles with psychological complexity, ones that suggest the handsome face that we all know so well is hiding something. As well as Logan, my picks are as the narcissistic magician in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige (2006), as the semi-vigilante father in Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners (2013) and as Gary Hart, the Democratic presidential contender who rose and fell, in Jason Reitman’s The Front Runner (2018


And now as Frank Tassone in Bad Education. He is the superintendent — more or less chief executive — of a school district on Long Island. He is a former teacher and most of the film takes place at one school, Roslyn High School, which under his decade-long tenure has become the No 4 public school in the US.

That ranking means a lot. It means more Roslyn area students are accepted into prestige universities. It means local property prices boom as people move to the education hot spot. The movie opens with Dr Tassone, as most people call him, walking on to an auditorium stage to the applause and cheers of students, parents and school board members.

Yet Jackman, with his slicked-back dyed black hair, over-scrubbed face and expensive suit, ­immediately brings an edge of uncertainty to the room. It’s close up. We see it, but the people in the audience do not. Is he fretting that being No 4, while good, is not good enough? Or is something else on his mind?




This is a difficult film to review in terms of plot spoilers. Set in the late 90s and early noughts, it is based on an investigative article that ran in New York magazine. The script is by Mike Makowsky, who went to Roslyn High. So the story was in the news at the time, and it has been repeated in recent weeks to publicise the film.


Yet I knew nothing about it and I knew nothing about Tassone, and watching it within that ignorance was amazing. Jackman does some things I don’t think I have seen him do before.

The broad structure is that Tassone and his deputy Pam Gluckin (Oscar winner Allison Janney) are running a highly successful school district. They plan to take Roslyn High to No 1, to make it the preferred option of Ivy League universities. The head of the school board — the chairman, more or less — is Bob Spicer (a brilliant Ray Romano).

The chemistry between Tassone and Gluckin is subtly unnerving, like the dangerous blending of two chemicals that can be mixed but shouldn’t be. Tassone himself doesn’t look quite right. The inked hair, the nostril-hair plucking, the no-carb diet that includes charcoal smoothies — and there’s more to come. His wife, we are told, died some time ago.

There are a couple of physically funny scenes, particularly one in which Tassone reluctantly agrees to go on to a dance floor. What Jackman, who won a Tony award for The Boy From Oz, does with this is worth waiting for.



Amid all of this, Tassone is a teacher at heart. We see him reading novels by Charles Dickens. I couldn’t quite make out the titles, but if one of them is Martin Chuzzlewit that would be, minor spoiler alert, a deft joke.


He respects the school newspaper and gives one of its reporters, Rachel (Australian actress Geraldine Viswanathan, who on this performance would be welcome in any newsroom), some advice that is right, journalistically speaking, but stupidly wrong in ways that will be seen. It’s this attention to the students and their helicopter parents that makes Tassone so loved and respected. It also produces a moment, later in the piece, that shows another side of the charismatic man. “My problem?” he says to a nagging mother who thinks her son should redo and redo a test until he scores what she wants him to score. “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.”



That powerful, frustrated, near-hostile speech goes to the educator inside the man Tassone became. Interestingly, in interviews, he, now 70, has said he thinks Jackman plays him just about perfectly, especially in the attitude towards teaching. However, he says one important part of the movie is not true. I suggest reading the interviews with him after you see the film.


As the movie unfolds it becomes clear there is something wrong at this school district and Tassone and Gluckin are the cause of it. It creates a wide range of reactions, some of which will be familiar to any school parent today. One of the questions is: if he can take the school to No 1, with all that means for university ent­rances and the local economy, should we stop him?



Jackman should be in the 2021 Oscar nominees but won’t be. Yet I doubt he will have to wait too long. His next film, scheduled for release in April next year, is Reminiscence, a near-future drama ­directed by Lisa Joy, the creator, writer and ­director of the TV series Westworld.

In it, Jackman is a solitary man living in a Miami almost swallowed by rising sea levels. He runs a business, from which the title is taken, that allows people to relive any memory from their lives. He meets a woman and falls in love. Her reminiscences are beautiful. Then another client relives memories in which she features, in a much different light. It sounds, like Bad Education, to be a movie about how people can be other than they seem to be.

Bad Education (M)

Foxtel, Binge, Google Play, Microsoft

★★★★

STEPHEN ROMEILITERARY EDITOR

Hope what he is hoping for new Oscar chances for Hugh in his new movie REMINISCENCE due out in early 2021 comes true 🤞🤞🤞

Jo

[jo]

All I could manage to copy before the subscription wall emerges

From The Sunday Times --

FILM
Film reviews: Bad Education; Black Water: Abyss; Greyhound
Hugh Jackman gives his most dazzling performance yet
Tom Shone
Sunday July 12 2020, 12.01am BST, The Sunday Times

An actor’s greatest weakness, correctly handled, can also be their superpower. In a career stretching from Wolverine in X-Men to Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, Hugh Jackman has attracted the kind of adjectives — solid, persuasive, focused, disciplined, dependable, likeable — that peg him as an old-fashioned showman and good sport. He’s the guy you call when your first choice falls through, his proficiency at times verging on slickness; he’s at his best playing hucksters in The Prestige and The Greatest Showman. Nothing, though, quite prepares you for the hustle and jive he puts on in Bad Education.

More...

[jo]

[jo]

More reviews keep coming.

This one is quite insightful as to how and why the storyline and character development click.


3brothersfilm.com/blog/2020/7/17/review-bad-education-2019

REVIEW: BAD EDUCATION (2019)
badeducation.jpg
There’s a certain type of person that thrives in our culture by doing bad things for what they claim to be the right reasons. In fact, these sorts of people have dominated politics for the past 30 years, justifying every indiscretion with the notion that their heart’s in the right place and that whomever would replace them would surely do worse. Cory Finley’s Bad Education, which HBO snapped up during the festival circuit last year, is an entertaining examination of these sorts of individuals through the lens of the Roslyn School District scandal from the early 2000s.

It stars Hugh Jackman as Frank Tassone, the superintendent for the upper-middle class Roslyn School District on Long Island, where school ranks are essential for getting kids into Ivy League colleges and, perhaps more importantly, increasing property values of residential homes in the district. In the opening scene, we watch as Frank, who is impeccably dressed and incredibly affable, announces to parents during an assembly that the school district has ranked number four countrywide. The parents erupt into applause and Frank hopes to ride their adulation into approval of an increased school budget for the next financial year.

A problem arises when Frank’s assistant superintendent, Pam Gluckin (Alison Janney), is caught charging personal home renovations to the district credit card. Turns out this incident wasn’t a one-time thing, and, soon enough, the school board is up in arms wanting to turn in Pam to the police. But like the most pragmatic politician imaginable, Frank talks them down from doing something so rash. Sure, they could turn Pam in, but if they expose her crimes, the school district will suffer, their kids won’t get into good colleges, and the values of their houses will go down. Surely, the right thing to do, according to Frank, is to send Pam off quietly under the vague label of early retirement and to cover up her wrongdoing to protect the district from any damage to its reputation.

The scene where Frank talks down the school board is key because it plays like Bad Education in miniature. Here you have people confronted with wrongdoing and instead of doing the right thing, they find every little reason to do the opposite, building their case by convincing themselves and each other that doing the wrong thing is actually doing the right thing, the moral thing, the only thing. In some ways, Cory Finley and writer Mike Makowsky (who was a middle-school student in Roslyn when the scandal took place) are using Frank and the other power players in Bad Education to encapsulate the American education system as a whole—and possibly the whole of American politics by extension (although this latter thematic extension is less surefooted). Finley and Makowsky take every opportunity they can to show how money is always the true motivator for bad actions, that crime and corruption is swept under the rug, ostensibly for the greater good, but really to maintain the growth of higher budgets and higher real estate values.

However, unlike in Finley’s previous film, the distinctive but over-stylized Thoroughbreds (2017), Bad Education doesn’t forgo smart characterizations in its attempts to lay bare the dysfunctions of wealth; its indictment of the education system is born out of its understanding of the people that make up that system. Central to the whole film is Hugh Jackman, who gives his best performance since Logan (2017) and probably one of the best of his career. Jackman’s Frank is a master rationalizer, who justifies every decision he makes by the fact that he is ostensibly a good person. Finley and Makowsky could’ve easily made him a conman, and Jackman does lean into the performative aspect of Frank, how he puts on a smiling face for parents and is great at remembering personal facts about faculty members to keep them in line. But Frank’s manner isn’t entirely fake; Frank is actually a skilled teacher and is genuinely curious about the lives of his students. The natural warmth in Jackman’s smile speaks to the fact that he takes joy in his students’ successes.

But Jackman also shows how the smile is often too large, the eyes a little too interested. He has crows feet and weariness at the corners of his eyes that betray that he’s grown tired of caring. He even tries to remove these through plastic surgery at one point in the film. Furthermore, this genuine interest in his students is his ultimate tool to rationalize any compromise or poor decision he makes. Since he cares, he believes he can do no wrong because he can rationalize every single decision he makes through the lens of doing right by the students.

There’s a dramatic irony in how the one undeniably positive aspect to Frank’s character—the fact that he cares about the students—is his tragic flaw, personally and professionally. His early encouragement of Rachel Bhargava (Geraldine Viswanathan), an ambitious student journalist, leads to Rachel undercovering the corruption beneath the school district, and eventually Frank’s own downfall.

All of this is to say that Bad Education is thematically rich and has a great performance at its centre, but it’s not particularly surprising or complex. The actual way that the scandal plays out over the course of the film is fairly conventional. It’s fun to watch, but the fact that it’s based on a true story and that Finley and Markowsky project everything on a straight line means that there’s very little that’s surprising, even as the film tries to throw out new revelations about Frank and other characters. If you’ve seen one true story scandal before, you know how this all ends.

The visual style is equally efficient, if unspectacular. Finley’s camera foregrounds the affluence of the physical spaces these characters inhabit. Like in Thoroughbreds, he favours long takes and low angles to bring attention to architecture, whether the school’s massive auditorium or the McMansions of the school parents. In close-ups, he fixates on the tiny imperfections in people’s presentation; you can even tell that he’s using slightly too wide a lens at points as if to distort what the character thinks is an immaculate presentation, subtly letting you know that the character’s a bit off.

There’s little doubt that Finley is a talented director with a considered approach to visual form. This was even apparent in Thoroughbreds, a film I didn’t care for much. That film made me worried that Finley’s talent as a director was entirely aesthetic, but with Bad Education, he proves that he can conjure more than a visual and thematic milieu when making a film. He can tell a good story as well.

7 out of 10

Bad Education (2019, USA)

Directed by Cory Finley; written by Mike Makowsky, based on “The Bad Superintendent” by Robert Kolker; starring Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney, Geraldine Viswanathan, Alex Wolff, Rafael Casal, Stephen Spinella, Annaleigh Ashford, Ray Romano.

[jo]

From a local (Philippines) review ( affiliate of cable company which showed BAD EDUCATION)

What is interesting is the clip - parts of the trailer and short appearances by Hugh, Cory, Mike, Allison, etc.


Jo

[jo]

Very thoughtful review from Bad Education --


www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2020/04/review-bad-education-movies-for-the-rest-of-us-with-bill-newcott/

Hugh Jackman stars as charismatic school superintendent Frank Tassone, who presided over the single largest public school embezzlement scandal in U.S. history.

Bill Newcott

Bad Education (On HBO)

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐


Run Time: 1 hour 48 minutes

Rating: TV-MA

Stars: Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney, Ray Romano

Writer: Mike Makowsky

Director: Cory Finley



Hugh Jackman has made just four movies in the past three years, and with each passing performance he is proving himself to be perhaps the most multifaceted actor working today.

Think about it: in 2017’s Logan he rewrote the book on bringing authentic intensity to a super hero character. The following year his Broadway musical chops singlehandedly saved The Greatest Showman. A few months later he triumphed as the brilliant yet infuriatingly haughty, self-destructive presidential candidate Gary Hart in The Front Runner.


There’s a touch of Hart in Frank Tassone, the guy Jackman plays in his latest film, Bad Education. For one thing, both men are real-life figures who plummeted from rock star-like status to pariah in less time than it took for them to comb their perfectly coiffed hair. And both were brought to their ends largely by their misplaced sense of indestructability.

But while Hart merely took himself down, Tassone was something of a human neutron bomb. As superintendent of schools in the tony Long Island bedroom community of Roslyn during the early 2000s, Tassone was lionized for raising the formerly middling school district to national elite status. But his legion of fans didn’t realize he was also presiding over the single largest public school embezzlement scandal in U.S. history.

What did Frank Tassone know, and when did he know it? Peeling the layers off that onion is just one of the great delights of Mike Makowsky’s script. What’s more, Makowsky, who wrote last year’s utterly brilliant but little-seen I Think We’re Alone Now, was born to write this screenplay: He was a middleschooler in Roslyn at the time his superintendent was led off in cuffs.

Jackman is in full can’t-take-your-eyes-off-him mode as Tassone, blinding students, faculty, and board of education members alike with his dazzling charm, impossibly chiseled features, and a smile that could guide the space shuttle in for a landing. One of the fun tricks of Bad Education is how Tassone checks off every box in everyone’s fantasy of the Hero Educator, and then some: He has memorized the names and interests of each kid in the district. He leaves his office door open to absolutely anyone with a problem. He even leads a community book club.

So what if Frank’s suits seem a tad too well tailored? And who cares that he’s obviously been having some work done on his face? And where does he live? Somewhere in Manhattan? Eh — better to focus on those SAT scores.

Everyone is happy until Frank’s top deputy (Allison Janney, cinema’s reigning supporting MVP) gets caught using district funds to redo her beach house — and by the way, how can she afford a beach house in the first place? Before long a reporter on the high school’s newspaper (doe-eyed Geraldine Viswanathan) is nosing through boxes of receipts as the administrators look warily over her shoulder.

By the time we’re into the second half of the film, the masks begin to slip. Even as the millions of missing dollars add up, the school board scrambles to hide the larceny lest the school’s reputation suffers — and local real estate values plunge. Ray Romano is in fine form as the school board president, at first struggling with his conscience yet ultimately deciding to let the whole thing slide.

To a point, that is. Eventually even those who didn’t gain one dime from the scam find their lives and reputations heading to permanent detention.

Second-time director Cory Finley (Thoroughbreds) deftly walks that caper film tightrope, allowing us to enjoy the company of scoundrels while never asking us to identify with them. He falters only once, near the final fadeout, when Frank finds himself face-to-face with a helicopter mom who has been dogging him from the start, demanding her son’s placement in an advanced course where he clearly does not belong.

With his upbeat, can-do reputation in tatters, Frank finally tears into the woman the way he’s clearly always wanted to. He berates her as one of “the people who trot their poor children out like race horses at Belmont.”

“Do you remember the teachers who held you by the hand? Do their names escape you? Are their faces a blur? You might forget, but we don’t. We never forget. Ever.”

It’s a fantastic speech, and Jackson seems ready to explode with anguish as he delivers it. But Frank doesn’t deserve that speech. Because while he may never have forgotten his students, he’s absolutely forgotten what it means to be accountable to them.

More fitting is the final shot: Frank’s face fills the screen, deep wrinkles finally claiming the territory he defended so fiercely for so long with other people’s money. He tries to flash that winning grin, the one that fooled everyone…even himself. But it doesn’t stay. It can’t stay.

In the end, the face of Frank Tassone is a skull wrapped in thin, nearly transparent skin.

Featured image: Scene from Bad Education (HBO)

[jo]

www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2020-07-12/culture/film-reviews-bad-education-black-water-abyss-greyhound-lcw93l9vm

Excerpts ( sorry, full review has a subscription wall) --

FILM

Hugh Jackman gives his most dazzling performance yet

Tom Shone
Sunday July 12 2020, 12.01am BST, The Sunday Times

HBO

An actor’s greatest weakness, correctly handled, can also be their superpower. In a career stretching from Wolverine in X-Men to Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, Hugh Jackman has attracted the kind of adjectives — solid, persuasive, focused, disciplined, dependable, likeable — that peg him as an old-fashioned showman and good sport. He’s the guy you call when your first choice falls through, his proficiency at times verging on slickness; he’s at his best playing hucksters in The Prestige and The Greatest Showman. Nothing, though, quite prepares you for the hustle and jive he puts on in Bad Education.

[jo]

Another insightful review from the UK --

vodzilla.co/reviews/vod-film-review-bad-education-2019/

VOD film review: Bad Education (2019)

REVIEW OVERVIEW

Hugh Jackman 10

Cory Finley 9.5
Allison Janney 9

9.5
Rating

Hugh Jackman delivers a career-best performance in this school embezzlement drama from the director of Thoroughbreds.

Matthew Turner | On 12, Jul 2020


Director: Cory Finley
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney, Ray Romano, Geraldine Viswanathan, Annaleigh Ashford, Rafael Casal, Alex Wolff, Stephen Spinella, Pat Healy
Certificate: 15
Watch Bad Education online in the UK: Sky Cinema / NOW TV

Thoroughbreds director Cory Finley goes two-for-two with this gripping embezzlement drama that’s based on a jaw-dropping true story and features a career-best performance from Hugh Jackman. Make no mistake, it’s one of the best films of the year and the fact that it won’t be eligible for this year’s Oscars – after being picked up for distribution by HBO – is a tragedy.

The film opens in 2002, where Frank Tassone (Jackman) is the district superintendent of the Roslyn School District in Long Island. Beloved by students, parents and teachers alike, Frank is the consummate professional, although his vanity is hinted at early on, when we first see him in the school bathroom, primping himself before addressing an assembly hall. Ironically, Frank sows the seeds of his own downfall when he encourages student reporter Rachel Bhargava (Blockers standout Geraldine Viswanathan) to dig deeper on her puff piece about an upcoming school construction project and turn it into a real story.



When Rachel exposes vast discrepancies in the school’s accounts, Frank’s second-in-command Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney) is implicated. Frank scrambles to contain the scandal, impressing upon the panicky school board (headed by Ray Romano’s Bob Spicer) that if the school loses its prestigious standing, property values in the area will plummet. But is Frank as innocent as he seems?


The casting of Jackman is inspired; he delivers a performance that is simply astonishing. Frank is, to put it mildly, a multi-layered individual and Jackman’s control in every gesture is extraordinary, fully aware that the razzle-dazzle of his front-facing persona hides a multitude of dark secrets within. What makes him – and by extension, the film – fascinating, however, is that the facade is also the truth: Frank really is an exceptional teacher and an inspirational figure who genuinely cares about each individual student and the school’s well-being. It’s just that… well, let’s just say that’s not the whole truth.


The supporting cast are equally wonderful, particularly the always-great Allison Janney, who beautifully captures both the arrogance and the shame Pam feels when she’s confronted with her crime. Similarly, Romano continues his great run of recent supporting turns, while Viswanathan radiates integrity and diligence as Rachel – the way she ignores Pam’s attempts to brush her off and keeps asking her questions is one of the film’s many great moments. (The film is also a celebration of good journalism, since it really was a student paper that broke the story in the first place.)

Scripted by Mike Makowsky, who was attending Roslyn Middle School when the Tassone scandal broke, the film is beautifully structured; the way the story reveals its salient details is a constant delight. Finley’s direction is note-perfect throughout, demonstrating as much control and precision in knowing what to unveil and when as Jackman does in his performance. The tone of the film is particularly commendable – it would have been easy to play up the caricature elements and go for easy laughs or parody, but instead Finley finds an unexpected measure of sympathy and understanding for his characters and the film is richer as a result.

The movie’s look is consistently fascinating too, and Finley packs in a number of intriguing details, such as the jet-black smoothies that Frank constantly drinks, like something out of a horror film. The icing on an already delicious cake is a terrific score by Michael Abels, which uses a single repeated note early on to effectively establish a sense of unease and tension, the feeling that something bad is coming.

Some reviews are superficial and say that it is a simple crime of greed and embezzlement. This one digs deeper and acknowledges the motivations ( misguided they may be) of Tassone as someone who actually thinks he deserves all the "perks" because of his true dedication to his role as driving force in the school reputation gaining eminence. Of course it did not include stealing via the fake publishing outfit...but there is some attempt to understand the motivations of Tassone.

[jo]

At last -- one review that has an insight into part of the motivations of Frank Tassone, given the business and social environment then!

Btw, the review is written by someone with a socialist viewpoint, so we can understand the strong arguments.


www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/11/educ-m11.html

The thievery in Bad Education: Capitalism “is the villain more than any one individual”
By Joanne Laurier
11 May 2020

Directed by Cory Finley; screenplay by Mike Makowsky



Bad Education, based on the 2004 New York magazine article “The Bad Superintendent” by Robert Kolker, was scripted by Mike Makowsky and directed by Cory Finley (Thoroughbreds, 2017). It is available on HBO.

The movie dramatizes the largest embezzlement scandal in the public education system in US history. The Roslyn school district on Long Island, New York was robbed of more than $11 million by its superintendent Frank Tassone and others over the course of a decade ending in 2004.

The time period is significant. The Roslyn school theft took place against the background of a stock market bonanza, huge increases in compensation for hedge fund managers and out-and-out swindling by financial institutions on a massive scale. Not to minimize their culpability, Tassone and his accomplices were small fish who took their lead from the rapacious and predatory sharks on Wall Street.




Small fish, but certainly industrious ones. Kolker, in his New York article, notes that, according to Nassau County prosecutors, Tassone spent his 12 years in Roslyn, an affluent community 20 miles from Manhattan, “quietly running one of the most audacious scams ever to afflict a public-school system. The coffers were plundered in practically every imaginable way—expense-account padding, vendor-bidding violations, check-record fabrications, even the creation of phony businesses.”

Tassone apparently had the school district pay for two trips on the Concorde to London, one costing $20,000 and the other $30,000, which included $1,800-a-night suites. He also took “a half-dozen jaunts to Las Vegas with his friends … where the district even staked some of Tassone’s gambling money. The D.A. says that by the time he was arrested … Tassone had saved enough money to transfer $300,000 to bank accounts in his sisters’ names.”

In Finley’s movie, Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman), the beloved, almost mythic superintendent of the Roslyn school district, has improved the schools’ academic rating and therefore, most importantly, as far as the pillars of the community are concerned, the town’s property values. When Tassone walks down a school hallway or attends any official gathering, he is greeted affectionately and admiringly on every side.

Frank is dapper, erudite, impeccable in appearance and keeps a photo of his (fictional) deceased wife in her wedding gown on his desk, adding to his image of stability and optimism in the face of adversity. He makes it his business to know the name of every one of his students and their parents. Not only that, Tassone expresses sincere interest in the young people’s lives and development.



He is also a consummate politician, attending book club meetings organized by mothers of his students and, in one instance, discussing one of his great interests—novelist Charles Dickens. (According to Kolker, one parent called him “Pecksniffian,” in reference to one legendary Dickens character, Seth Pecksniff in Martin Chuzzlewit, who “exploits the weaknesses of others, and is selfish and corrupt behind a display of benevolence.”)

Less conspicuously, but often also requiring funds, Tassone is obsessed with low-carb dieting and plastic surgery.

Every new program and innovation he institutes fills the Roslyn community with pride.

Kolker explains that Tassone introduced foreign language study to the elementary schools, “and a ‘values education’ curriculum to the high school, including the community-service requirement. He embraced senior citizens by starting discussion groups and hosting an annual community dinner-dance—scheduled, shrewdly, right before the annual vote on the school budget. School employees learned to look forward to birthday cards signed ‘Dr. Tassone,’ and congratulatory gift baskets on anniversaries. And he disarmed potential dissenters face to face, meeting by meeting—sitting still as an owl at his office’s conference table, hands folded in his lap, head nodding.”

Finley’s Bad Education effectively conveys these aspects of Tassone’s public life.


His second in command is Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney), a hard-working stalwart whose practicality complements Frank’s flamboyance. Student journalist Rachel Bhargava (Geraldine Viswanathan) intends to write a puff piece about the school’s latest project—a $7.5 million skywalk. But when she begins to seriously investigate numerous monetary discrepancies, the house of cards collapses.



In their grand theft of the school district, Frank and Pam drew in many collaborators. Whether the filmmakers fully intend it to or not, Bad Education reveals how the worship of wealth at any cost in recent decades has had a deeply corrupting influence on a not inconsiderable portion of the professional middle classes.

For example, Pam’s niece, who worked as a clerk stole more than $850,000. According to an article in Esquire: “Investigators discovered that seemingly legitimate checks were written to vendors and were then cashed by the conspirators. One million in cash was drawn out of ATMs, while 74 unauthorized Rosalyn school credit cards were circulated among the district employees and their friends and family members.”

Finley’s Bad Education is a well-made film, with Jackman and Janney heading a superb cast. The drama is taut and fast-paced. Jackman plays a complex man who both desires to be a pioneering, respected and valuable educator and yet steals vital resources. He is a Dickens enthusiast who acts, as noted above, like one of Dickens’ villains—hypocritical high-mindedness in public, accompanied by relentless thievery behind the scenes.

Whether the cruel social requirement that he suppress and conceal his real personal situation—a pretend widower, he is a gay man living with one man in Manhattan and purchasing a house in Las Vegas with another—nourished resentment and encouraged him to loot the school district as a kind of silent (and reckless) revenge remains unclear. In any case, the issue is not explored in Finley’s film.


Everything about the situation in America made the thievery in Roslyn not only possible, but inevitable.

2004, the year of Tassone’s undoing, was also the first year in which a Wall Street hedge fund manager made more than $1 billion. The WSWS noted in June 2005 that a survey by Alpha, a magazine published by Institutional Investor, found that “the average compensation for the top 25 hedge fund managers [in 2004] was $251 million, over $6 billion combined. This figure has nearly doubled since 2002.” Of course, former Roslyn resident Bernie Madoff was also active at the time, operating his gigantic Ponzi scheme.

Tassone apparently felt that Wall Street operators should not be the only ones to benefit during the “fat years,” even if it was only millions in his case, to their billions.

Indeed, he made no secret of this conviction. In his feature article, Kolker describes Tassone as saying, “Look at the CEO of IBM—they’re making zillions and we’re making $200,000.” Even after his downfall, he still maintained that what he did was totally acceptable, given the vast sums of money that were sloshing around.

In regard to this point, Director Finley made an astute observation in an interview with AV Club. Bad Education, he explained, was not just “a story about clear-cut villains, but about complicated individuals that are all motivated by a thorny tangle of different motivations, and in which, to some degree, the system—the much larger system, that of American capitalism—is the villain more than any one individual.”

Proving the comment was not a fluke, Finley spoke similarly in relation to his last movie, Thoroughbreds (2017).

“Every work of art is political,” said the director in an interview with Filmmaker magazine, “I’m aiming to say something about the morally insulating effects of privilege, and about how manipulation is woven into the day-to-day reality of a capitalistic society.”

Intriguing comments, and positive results.

I have always thought that Tassone might have been influenced in part by his sense of self-entitlement due to seeing how other top achievers (of institutional missions - corporate or otherwise) enjoy the so-called "corporate perks" as part of total compensation! His neighbors in downtown Manhattan ( the famous Wall Street) enjoyed many privileges ... and he likely thought that given what he has achieved for the school and the community, it entitled him to some additional type of compensation.

When an executive travels to a business meeting or event but brings his wife along - does he pay the fare for his wife for using the corporate jet?

I think the School Board was also to blame in a major way for how it subsumed their oversight responsibility for personal gains!

Btw, this one review brings the Rotten Tomatoes one positive review away from regaining its 94% earlier rating.


Jo

[jo]

Another very impressed review of Hugh's acting in BAD EDUCATION --


www.hollywoodinsider.com/bad-education-hbo-review/?fbclid=IwAR3z_9opIM20nDYcjWh-iauwhpZu0lLIFdUE4OLCD-G5tV3eMSWU5T5h5Cg

Hollywood Insider -
Review: ‘Bad Education’ – Must Watch, Corrupt Politicians + School System
Merrick Sinclair
Merrick Sinclair
Aug 7, 2020

Table of Contents
Hugh’s Still Got It – Bad Education
Sharp and To The Point
Bad Education – Truth Hurts

Hollywood Insider Bad Education Review, HBO, Allison Janney, Hugh Jackman
Photo: Bad Education/HBO

Corruption exists, even in the public school system. Bad Education reminds us of this. Back in the 2000s, Roslyn High School in Long Island learned that the hard way. Bad Education details how the district suffered the largest public school embezzlement scheme in American history, destroying the faith and trust many had in those in authority.

Thanks to an outstanding lead in Hugh Jackman and solid support from Allison Janney, Geraldine Viswanathan, Ray Romano, and Alex Wolff paired with sharp writing and pacing from writer Mike Makowsky, HBO’s straight-to-service film overachieves and delivers a punch to the gut.



Hugh’s Still Got It – Bad Education

Hugh Jackman hasn’t delivered a quality performance this good since Logan in 2017. I purposefully didn’t do any research on what really happened so I could immerse myself in the story and this benefited me greatly. Not knowing exactly who Frank Tassone was and is, allowed me to get to know the character without any predesignated notions of Tassone. And wow, is Jackman amazing. Jackman perfectly tiptoes between the “corrupt politician” type and a man who fought to help improve his district but lost his way which forced me to regularly re-think my opinion on the man.

Throughout the film, Jackman conveys a subtlety and nuance that elevates the story as a whole. From his love affairs, living the good life, and doing whatever it takes to continue his work, Frank Tassone is a complex man, even if you want to punch him in the face at moments for abusing his power to a near-villainous capacity.

Jackman is unlikely to get any Oscar consideration (Golden Globe maybe?). Though this year, with a drought in films, this may be the year a service like HBO can get recognition. Regardless, a great performance is a great performance, and over time many will see just how impressive a role from Jackman this was. I’m used to the loud and charismatic roles of Jackman, but this quieter performance shows he can tone it down for the entirety of a film and still make you feel something inside, good or bad.




The final scene with Tassone imagining what his life could have been is poignant, once again reminding us he’s not a monster but a human who’s made terrible mistakes.

Sharp and To The Point

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that writer Mike Makowsky would be suited to take on this story. He was there. Makowsky was a student at Roslyn High School when Frank Tassone and Pamela Gluckin, played perfectly by Allison Janney (I, Tonya, The West Wing) were caught for embezzlement.

The writing in this film doesn’t beat around the bush. Instead, Bad Education goes straight for all the vulnerable spots and keeps hitting them. Makowsky wants the audience to truly feel and understand just what happened, and what it was like to be there. We see not just from Tassone’s perspective, but the student who investigated the story and was responsible for bringing clarity to the scam. Rachel (Geraldine Viswanathan) is torn between deciding what’s more important to her: keep the school steady and happy, or come clean with what she discovers even if it tears everything down and hurts her peers in the process.



The sharp and blunt script from Makowsky also aids the film with good pacing as before I knew it, the film was over. This writer is going places, and hopefully, he continues to write more. If Mike does, studios will have no choice but to give him many more opportunities.


In a time when police brutality is on everyone’s minds, I’m reminded that corruption is in every level of life. From the federal level to seemingly harmless school systems, everyone is trying to move up and take advantage of loopholes.

A friend of mine said that all politicians, no matter what side they’re on are corrupt in some way. Now that’s a pretty bleak outlook, but after stories like this and studying history from the beginning of man, can you blame those who think that? No wonder mistrust is a foregone conclusion in this world.

When a superintendent and other officials can get away with stealing millions right under the nose of a community just trying to help the next generation, the idea that even greater schemes have and will be concocted by those with greater authority than meer public school leaders isn’t crazy but is far too likely a reality.


Yes, this was 2004, but I don’t think anyone can say corruption is less prevalent. Frank Tassone went from a great leader to nothing but another politician using the public trust for his gain in mere seconds. Frank Tassone played the role of a family man who wanted nothing than to help his district succeed and give his students endless opportunities. The anger and betrayal families felt when the man they trusted to help their children was found out as the one destroying those opportunities is unimaginable.

Yes, you have to buy it or get HBO to watch, but if you are dying for a masterclass in acting while showcasing Hugh Jackman in tip-top form, Bad Education is worth the price of admission.

By Merrick Sinclair

A lot of people who have only seen Hugh in showy films do not realize that the talent has always been there. Many of us are lucky to have seen him in different guises and story situations ( both for film and stage) and have appreciated his wide range and ability over the years!

Jo

[jo]

This review digs deeper into the storyline and characterization, the performances, and the filmmaking and cinematic quality of BAD EDUCATION.

defactofilmreviews.com/bad-education-2020/

Bad Education (2020)
de facto film reviews
3 stars

As a follow-up to Cory Finley’s feature debut “Thoroughbreds,” “Bad Education (2020)” represents a step forward for the young filmmaker since both sagas deal with issues of deception and trust, except that the scope of the new film is more mature and ambitious, going beyond the “Heathers” inspired teenage satire of the 2018 film.

The story of New York public school attendants who betrayed their school district by embezzling millions of tax-payer dollars into their own expenses. “Bad Education” (not to be confused with Pedro Almodovar’s polar opposite LGBTQI thriller of the same name) is a richly layered drama that unfolds like a procedural thriller that is in the vein of a David Fincher film.


Bad Education' Review: Adding Fraud to the Curriculum - The New ...
Set behind the scenes of a Long Island public school district, which holds some of the highest graduation and success ratings of their graduates completing college at Ivy League universities, these schools have the honor of serving their community and taxpayers.

The film, scripted by Mike Makowsky (“I Think We’re Alone Now”), is inspired by true events. In 2002, renowned Long Island school super attendant Frank Tassone was found guilty of money embezzlement and fraud against the state of New York. Over the course of a decade, Tassone systematically and deliberately used taxpayer dollars to enrich his whole life while rationalizing it for his own net gain.
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Review: HBO's 'Bad Education' shows Hugh Jackman at his best - Los ...

“Bad Education” is certainly elevated by the complex, multi-nuanced performance from Hugh Jackman thank ranks up there with “The Fountain” and “Prisoners” as being one of his most effective and emotionally charged performances to date. Jackman is supported by Oscar-winner Allison Janney (“I, Tonya,” “American Beauty), who plays Pam Gluckin, Franks assistant who also embezzles a lot of money for her family. This is revealed once a high school sophomore named Rachel (Geraldine Viswanathan) is writing puff pieces for the school newspaper that is promoting the approval of the school district’s next annual budget.

Frank is the one that actually empowers Rachel to embark on real journalism and ask more challenging questions. Rachel eventually observes a lot of financial loose ends that just fail to add up to the 7.2 million skywalk for Roslyn High School. The school ceilings are leaking and the pizza ovens that are bought aren’t to be found in the school cafeteria. It’s the type of fraud that has occurred off the backs of many tax-payer money in numerous other school districts in the past as well.

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Finley is obviously drawn to stories about deception, and to characters that hold their own double life, individuals that deceive many others on the outside, to love one kind of life on the outside, and a vastly different kind of inner lifestyle. Credit to Jackman for transforming his mostly masculine driven roles as he digs deep with the nuances of a closeted gay man who keeps a photo of his, deceased wife to keep the facade that is straight man. Frank holds a secret relationship with life partner (Stephen Spinella) while reconnecting with Kyle (Blindspotting’s Rafael Casal), a former student of his that he ends up having a romantic relationship with during a school convention in Las Vegas.

Kyle, who was a former exotic dancer-turned-bartender allows Frank to open up to his suppressed youth that he still years for, in which Frank still attempts to keep his younger self going with face-lift treatments that are paid by the same deceptive book-keeping formula that Pam also uses to remodel her house, pay for her daughters college, and keep other family members prosperous with necessities.


Bad Education Deal Out of TIFF Brings Film to HBO – /Film

In this regard, “Bad Education” is another rise-and-fall saga of an essential American citizen who gets co-opted with the temptations of greed and the abuse of power. Nonetheless, unlike “Thoroughbreds,” which was narrowly focused on just a few characters that had a setting of just one locale, “Bad Education” pays equal attention to plot and characterization, making the material both refreshing and engrossing.

The plot, particularly the premise and first reels, is rather fascinating. When Pam is terminated out of her high-level super attendant job into her husband’s car dealership, her dreams of becoming a full-fledged superintendent like Frank gets further from reality once Frank and his board decides not to take further action in return of her peacefully dismissing herself from her field.



Frank also has his own aspirations in furthering the district into great prosperity, in which he took the school district from one of the lowest ranked public school districts in the state, to one of the best in the nation. Frank is getting closer to getting the larger budget that he wants, a budget that he believes will push the school further in where it needs to be, or will it only go further more into his own self-interests?


However, Frank’s own reality soon turns to anxiety, when Rachel digs deeper and finds that many addresses on their write-offs are in fact an address to Frank and his compassion’s own elegant and fancy apartment in New York’s upper east side. It is revealed to Rachel that Frank’s budget and monetary spending is going to his own gain over the interest of the school. Things only worse once the school’s own auditor begins to do a deep dive into the schools finances and discovers many discrepancies.



The story of “Bad Education” began just a few years into George W. Bush and his Administration. An era that resulted in much corruption, endless ongoing investigations, and deceptions that led our nation into disastrous war. It was also an era that had a lot of scandals with many financial institutions like the Enron scandal, which was only the beginning chapters of other types of corruption that ended with the housing bubble crash of 2008.


In this sophisticated, complex, and intriguing dramatic thriller, Frank is depicted as a man of unsettling contradictions, who damaged his own reputation and harmed his own schools by successfully looting millions of dollars on his own behalf for years before being caught. Jackman, who over the years has specialized in playing in many dramatic roles, even his role as Wolverine was an emotionally raw performances in the “X-Men” franchise films, most notably in “Logan,” or the conflicted husband and scientist (And even Conquistador) in “The Fountain” still remains his most fragile performance to date, yet in his performance in “Bad Education” ranks up there with another distinguished and accomplished performance.

Lessons to be learnt from real-life school corruption scandal ...

As Frank Tassone, he brings out the man’s own securities as well as regrets, emphasizing the man’s many layers and nuances, colors and contractions. In Jackman’s interpretation, Tassone is forgotten, neglected, and not appreciated for what he does for the parents and their children in his community, a man that feels he and the teachers he represents hold more self-worth than they are given for. A man at odds with his own original principles of knowledge and pushing the children of today into a better tomorrow. All around the films set-up and layered themes on the surface is truth pays off with great dramatic effect, especially with Rachel’s journalist character that plays out very like a procedural in many ways like Fincher’s “Zodiac” or the forgotten Oscar Best Picture winner “Spotlight”, a few more scenes would have benefited the films premise and tied in the themes into even greater impact.


Due to the pandemic, “Bad Education” ended up being released on VOD directly to HBO. While the Academy recently changed their rules on VOD/Direct-to-Streaming films, it appears “Bad Education” will not be eligible for the Oscars since HBO is considered TV instead of “Film”, in which Jackman was just nominated for an Emmy for this performance. Regardless, the film’s style and technique is very cinematic and polished. While the performance by Jackman remains a stellar one inside of a thoughtful film that remains both cautionary and empathetic.



By Robert Joseph Butler|07/31/2020|

[mamaleh]

Those reviews should be reprinted and sent to Emmy voters. Is that allowed?

Ellen