BAD EDUCATION : Official Reviews ( SPOILERS)

[jo]

Surprisingly, I have not seen a For Your Consideration ad for Hugh, while I have just seen one on Deadline for Paul Mescal ( who Scott Feinberg of Hollywood Reporter is predicting for the win )


Maybe he is building stronger awareness via talk shows and other interviews?


Jo

[jo]

En Francais

www.cnews.fr/divertissement/2020-08-14/bad-education-lincroyable-fraude-qui-inspire-le-film-avec-hugh-jackman

but translated --

BAD EDUCATION: THE INCREDIBLE FRAUD THAT INSPIRED THE FILM WITH HUGH JACKMAN
By CNEWS - Updated on 14/08/2020 at 18:01
Published 14/08/2020 at 18:01

Hugh Jackman is captivating in the film "Bad Education". [© YouTube/OCS screenshot]

The film "Bad Education", to be watched on OCS City from 13 September, sees Australian actor Hugh Jackman play the role of Frank Tassone, an educator convicted in 2004 for embezzling more than $11 million (more than 9 million euros) of public money.

The feature film features his screenplay written by Mike Makowsky, a former student at Roslyn College in New York State who was present at the school at the time of Frank Tassone's arrest in 2004. "Frank Tassone was the first person I met in Roslyn. I wanted to write something personal about the city of my childhood... and this story was ostensibly the most important thing that ever happened there," he points out in the Vanity Faircolumns.

A highly involved educator during his 12 years in office, who made it a point of honour to meet every student of the school, and whose efforts to offer a quality program have allowed the school to be among the best in the country - at the same time driving up the city's real estate prices, and thus creating profits - Frank Tassone has succeeded in setting up a system of widespread corruption that allows it to divert more than $11 million in public money. And to offer yourself an absolutely incredible lifestyle for several years.

He was not alone in taking advantage of the financial windfall. Pamela Gluckin (played by the excellent Allison Janney in the film), her social affairs assistant, also benefited from these hijackings by using credit cards on behalf of the school to withdraw huge sums of money. Cash withdrawals, luxury vacations, high-end cars, apartment purchases in an upscale New York neighborhood, jewelry, artwork, etc. they have led a lavish life at the taxpayer's expense for years.


When the case comes to light, the shock waves are felt throughout the city. "Administrators were always asking for more money, and because they were getting incredible results, taxpayers were excited to participate," recalls Mike Makowsky. “Children went to the best schools and got top grades, and the price of land kept going up. So it was difficult and complicated to accept: there is this charming and charismatic man, who made it a point of honor to offer a quality education and to help students, and at the same time, we learn that he was stealing from money and was at the heart of this $ 11 million plus fraud. It was a shock for everyone, with a deep feeling of betrayal, ”continues the screenwriter.

Frank Tassone was sentenced to prison, before being released in 2010 on charges of good behavior. He now receives a pension of over $ 174,000 (over 147,000 euros). He said he paid off $ 1.9 million in 2006, and promised to pay off the rest of his debt. Her accomplice, Pamela Gluckin, was sentenced in 2005 before being released in 2011. She reportedly announced her intention to donate half of her annual $ 55,000 pension (over 46,000 euros) to reimburse Roslyn College and reportedly worked for a non-profit organization until his death in 2017.

“I know the film was called Bad Education. But that's not quite right in one respect. I received an excellent education at this school. And I think it has something to do, strangely, with this man, Frank Tassone, who recruited the teachers that I had. (…) It's very strange. How can you care so much about the students, their education, and devote your life and career to such a noble profession ... and at the same time, be so odious towards the students, the local population, the taxpayers? I hope this film will open the dialogue on this issue, ”says Mike Makowsky.



Bad Education, starting September 13 on OCS.

[jo]

Evem at this point, Bad Education continues to get raves as a movie ( which the reviewer thinks should have been a theatrical release) and for Hugh Jackman's potrayal!


theultimaterabbit.com/2020/10/06/bad-education-movie-and-blu-ray-review/

DVD/BLU-RAY REVIEWS, MOVIE REVIEWS, UNCATEGORIZED
‘Bad Education’ Movie and Blu-ray Review
Posted on36 Minutes Ago by The Ultimate Rabbit


The following review was written by Ultimate Rabbit correspondent Tony Farinella.

“Bad Education” is the kind of film that would have worked very well in theaters if not for the current Covid-19 pandemic based on the star power of its two leads, Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney. As a reviewer, however, I’m happy to watch it on any platform. As usual, HBO delivers quality programming which stands out from the pack. When it comes to delivering the goods, Jackman gives his best performance, in my opinion, as Dr. Frank Tassone.

When the audience first meets Dr. Tassone, he comes across as probably the nicest, most caring, and thoughtful superintendent known to mankind. He goes above and beyond for his students, the parents, and everyone who works for him. He is the definition of the first one in the building and the last one to leave. He’s also very particular about his weight, appearance, and presentation. But beneath all of this, there is a very dark side to him that is sociopathic, cunning, and very conniving. I can’t imagine too many actors would have been able to handle the juggling act of playing everyone’s favorite superintendent one minute and a conman behind closed doors the next as well as Jackman. Thanks to his hard work and the efforts of Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney), the Roslyn Union Free School District on Long Island is rapidly growing. The numbers are good, people are making money, and everyone is happy.

However, when it comes to handling success and money, all it takes is one slip up for everything to be exposed to the public. “Bad Education” is based on a true story, and it makes you, as an audience member, wonder how this could have happened and why it got so out of hand. I won’t spoil any of the details for you in terms of what happens to Pam Gluckin and Frank Tassone, but as they say, truth is stranger than fiction. This is a film I would have gladly paid money to watch on the big screen. There are moments of dark comedy in this adult drama, and they work perfectly. What makes it even more surreal is the fact their empire was brought down by a young journalism student played by promising young actress, Geraldine Viswanathan (“Blockers,” “Miracle Workers”). There is also great supporting work from Alex Wolff, Rafael Casal and Ray Romano.

However, there are two major reasons this film is such a success. One of the reasons is the performances from Janney and Jackman. Let’s focus on Janney first here, as she delivers a tough, no-nonsense performance. Pam is unapologetic about what she is doing, and Janney portrays this perfectly. Even when Pam is at her worst and it seems like the cards are stacked against her, Janney shows off a side of her that is not going to go down without a fight. Jackman gives a meticulous and detailed performance which does not have a single false note. Much like his character, every single aspect of his performance is well-thought out and serves a purpose. As mentioned earlier, it is the best Jackman performance I’ve ever seen. He can really do it all as an actor.

It was mentioned in the review that, as an audience member, you wonder how this successful school district allowed themselves to get so over-the-top with their own personal needs and financial gain. As noted on the back of the Blu-ray, it was the largest public-school embezzlement in U.S. history. The fact the characters are so fleshed out, and the story is told in such a smart, entertaining, and unique way just adds to your enjoyment level of this film. If you don’t have HBO, or even if you do, this is a film that is worth owning on Blu-Ray. It’s dramatic, sad, funny, and shocking.

* * * ½ out of * * * *

_____________________________________________________________________________

Blu-Ray Info: “Bad Education” comes to Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment. It is also available on DVD as well. “Bad Education” has a running time of 109 minutes and is not rated.

Video Info: The film is released on 1080p High Definition 16×9 2.4:1. While I was very happy to be able to watch and review this film on Blu-Ray, I must admit it is not a perfect Blu-Ray. During random scenes, there are moments of splotches and grainy images. While it is disappointing, Blu-ray is always my preferred method of viewing a film as opposed to DVD, so I was able to overlook it. For the most part, it is a stellar looking Blu-ray with minor flaws.

Audio Info: “Bad Education” comes on a DTS-HD Master Audio: English 5.1 soundtrack with subtitles in English. The audio is superb on this release.

Special Features: The Blu-ray comes with three special features: “Based on a True Story,” “The Perception of Perfect,” and “Hugh Jackman & Allison Janney – Virtual Conversation.” My only problem with these special features is they are all under five minutes. I would have liked if they were a little bit longer as this is such a unique and compelling true story.

Should You Buy It?

“Bad Education” is a film I’ve been telling friends to see ever since I watched its debut on HBO a few months back. On a second viewing, I received even more enjoyment out of this film. As they say, the devil is the details, and this film touches on something that was completely unknown to me before watching it. After watching the film, it made me want to learn more about the true story behind it. If you are looking for a smart, funny and well-crafted adult drama with a lot of bite to it, you will enjoy the hell out of “Bad Education.” This is the type of smart entertainment HBO is known for, and they deliver the goods with this movie. I can’t say enough great things about the performances by the two leads, especially Jackman. At times, I felt sorry for Dr. Tassone, even though he is selfish, as Jackman brings a humanity to this character. This film is definitely worth owning and picking up on Blu-ray.

**Disclaimer** I received a Blu-Ray copy of this film from Warner Archive to review for free. The opinions and statements in the review are mine and mine alone.

[jo]

While the movie got its recognition as a BEST artistic work, albeit at the EMMYs --

Jackman gives a meticulous and detailed performance which does not have a single false note. Much like his character, every single aspect of his performance is well-thought out and serves a purpose. As mentioned earlier, it is the best Jackman performance I’ve ever seen. He can really do it all as an actor.

it is the recognition of Hugh Jackman's portrayal which has been shortchanged because he lost the chance to compete at the an Oscar acting honor! With Oscar acting honors ( presumably differently viewed from typcial TV fare's standards for acting excellence where taste may cater more towards middle-of-the-road, less-sophisticated fare and more emotion-evocative), his portrayal could have gotten the highest honor. As Peter Debruge who reviewed the movie for Variety said in his podcast with Owen Gleiberman - "And Hugh Jackman oughta get an Oscar for it.".


Jo

[jo]

I never came across this review, but this is one of the best-written!

moviemanifesto.com/2020/04/bad-education-cleaning-up-the-district-cleaning-out-the-cash-drawer.html

Bad Education: Cleaning Up the District, Cleaning Out the Cash Drawer

April 30, 2020 Jeremy BeckReviews
Hugh Jackman and friends in Cory Finley's "Bad Education"

The lessons imparted in Bad Education aren’t typically taught in the classroom, but they’re nonetheless worth taking to heart. They include: Don’t give your corporate credit card to your no-account kids. Don’t schedule work trips to Las Vegas. And if you’re going to embezzle money from the school district that you run, do not—do not—encourage the student reporter writing a puff piece on your newest fancy expenditure to “dig deeper”.

The last of these nuggets of wisdom forms the linchpin of Bad Education, the spry and perceptive new movie from Cory Finley that’s currently streaming on HBO. An immensely promising young talent (he just turned 30), Finley’s debut feature was Thoroughbreds, an electrifying thriller about two teenage sociopaths who plot the murder of a loathsome stepfather. At first glance, his follow-up looks to be a dramatic departure; there are no off-screen stabbings, no portentous firearms, no dosed-up cocktails. But the two films do share a preoccupation with the falsehood of appearances: how conniving people construct polished exteriors in order to manipulate others. Finley’s characters tend to be sneakily more—and morally less—than what they seem.

The wolf in Brooks Brothers clothing here is Dr. Frank Tassone (a never-better Hugh Jackman), the superintendent of schools in Roslyn, a Long Island neighborhood whose cleanly paved streets are lined with spruce trees and handsome homes. With his surgically sculpted face and slicked-back, midnight hair, Tassone cuts an authoritative figure, but he initially presents as a white knight—an uncommonly noble and gracious bureaucrat whose savvy stewardship has lifted Roslyn to the fourth-ranked district in the country. So what if he’s stolen a few million bucks in the process?


I’m only half-joking. In telling the story of the embezzlement scandal that rocked Roslyn in 2002, Bad Education is both scrupulous and fascinating, a worthy entrant into the annals of white-collar cinematic crime. But its scariest insight lies in its depiction of communal blindness—of a collective willingness to ignore rampant criminality so as not to tarnish the district’s carefully manicured image of success. That’s why its most revealing scene comes relatively early, after the school board has stumbled upon the financial malfeasance of Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney, always good), the assistant superintendent who has racked up $250,000 in phony invoices and business expenses. Surveying a roomful of ruffled board members—a panicked mob eager for a scalp—Tassone puts his silver tongue to work. Is it really worth it, he asks with apparent earnestness, to publicize Gluckin’s poor judgment and subject their innocent students to the grave trickle-down effects? What happens once comptrollers start roaming their offices? What about Ivy League admissions? What about board elections? What about—gasp—real estate prices?


Bad Education is too effortlessly entertaining to be crudely polemical, but it nevertheless flings some pointed barbs at the pedagogy, which it conceives of as an institutional house of cards, built as much on facsimiles of intelligence and learning as on actual knowledge. What matters isn’t what you know but what others think of you, a delicate balance of pretense that indicts teachers, parents, and students alike. When that aforementioned reporter (Geraldine Viswanathan) pitches a story about Tassone’s corruption to the school paper, her editor blanches. “He’s writing my recommendation!”

That’s a funny line, and it typifies the undercurrent of bleak humor that runs through the movie. The screenplay, by Mike Makowsky—who attended Roslyn High in the wake of the scandal—is sharply detailed without feeling punctilious; bookend scenes of Tassone mollifying an obnoxious parent who’s making demands on behalf of her “gifted” young son efficiently conjure a social order obsessed with placement and status. Finley underlines this demented rigidity with quiet but inflexible control, most notably in his precise framing; a shot of Tassone seated in the center of a room, flanked by disapproving subordinates with crossed arms and creased frowns, is likely to become the film’s signature image.

With a trajectory that recalls The Informant! (one of this critic’s favorite Steven Soderbergh pictures), Bad Education is simultaneously suspenseful and inevitable; you know what’s ultimately going to happen, but you don’t quite know when, or how. Finley creates a vertiginous mood, envisioning Tassone as a nimble grifter dancing on the edge of a perpetually narrowing knife blade. The more brazen his lies and deceptions grow, the more quickly the walls close in. It’s an oddly satisfying experience, because it allows us to learn more of his true nature—to uncover the man behind the smiling, plastic mask.

As a based-in-fact drama, Bad Education is rigorous and compelling; it’s difficult to imagine this particular story being told on screen any better, or with a more expertly calibrated blend of energy and discernment. Yet there is an orderliness to it, a careful logic, that is weirdly deflating. One of the most exciting things about Thoroughbreds was its unpredictability, not just in terms of its plot but of its characters’ behavior. We were drawn to them because we’d never met anyone like them.

This movie is different. Its characters seem very much like regular people, which is a credit to its realism but which also limits its sense of mystery. That Finley wrings as much intrigue and pathos from a glorified check-fraud scam as he does is a testament to his skill, but his gifts are cabined by the prosaic nature of the material. There are only so many interesting ways to shoot interviews with dogged investigators, or to depict horrified educators slowly learning the truth about their sanctified leader.


Perhaps that’s why Bad Education, which shouldn’t be confused with the Almodóvar film of the same title, is most successful as a star vehicle. The supporting cast is uniformly good—Janney, in particular, relishes her role as an amoral viper—but it’s Jackman who provides the movie with its slippery complexity. Tassone is a total crook, and Jackman doesn’t shy away from highlighting his predatory tendencies. He’s also somewhat lonely, which explains why, even though he’s been secretly sharing a Park Avenue apartment with another man for 30-plus years, he embarks on an affair with a former student (Blindspotting’s Rafael Casal) whom he meets during one of his Vegas excursions. Yet while Jackman locates notes of isolation and longing in the character, he also astutely taps into a vein of simmering superiority, most memorably in a riveting scene where he fashions a parable about race cars to teach a child how to say the word “accelerate”. It’s a rich and nuanced performance, one that stealthily ensnares our sympathy even as it triggers our sense of self-righteousness.

If Jackman’s work feels like the capstone of a successful career, it’s also a reminder that his director is just getting started. Where does Cory Finley go from here? I’m excited to find out, even if I hope that he’s a bit more adventurous the next time around. After all, the classroom can be stifling, and he’s proved that he has nothing left to learn.

Grade: B



Jeremy Beck
Jeremy Beck is the editor-in-chief of MovieManifesto.

[jo]

/photo/2

[jo]

BAD EDUCATION makes it to Huff Post list of Best 2020 movies!

Why of why is the film deprived of being so honored at Oscar level



www.huffpost.com/entry/best-movies-2020-list_n_5fc8ef10c5b6437be6fb84b0

In 2018, director Corey Finley made his big-screen debut with “Thoroughbreds,” a delicious psychodrama about murderous teen girls. His follow-up, “Bad Education,” scrubs some of that earlier movie’s stylishness but none of its bite. Based on a true scandal about a cunning Long Island school superintendent caught embezzling millions of dollars, Finley’s film offers a taut but nuanced portrait of greed that weaponizes Hugh Jackman’s charm. Portraying the antiheroes at the film’s center, Jackman and co-star Allison Janney use their inherent likability to expose how easy it is for the powerful to dupe those with less — a dynamic that screenwriter Mike Makowsky wisely mines for tension and dark humor.

“Bad Education” is available on HBO. Read our interview with Corey Finley and Allison Janney here.

[jo]

I think we might have missed reading the interview mentioned in the link from HuffPost --

www.huffpost.com/entry/bad-education-allison-janney-hugh-jackman-hbo_n_5ea332ffc5b6f96398148b2e

ENTERTAINMENT 04/25/2020 08:00 am ET Updated Apr 25, 2020
Allison Janney And Hugh Jackman Get Twisted In HBO’s Fantastic ‘Bad Education’

The beloved actors shine in director Cory Finley’s gripping movie about a real public-school embezzlement scandal.

By Matthew Jacobs
Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney in "Bad Education."

When we first see Allison Janney in “Bad Education,” she exudes respectability. Janney plays Pam Gluckin, a ladder-climbing administrator at a distinguished Long Island high school who settles two months’ worth of expenses and arranges a meeting at City Hall before first period is over. Minutes later, she’s sitting on the bleachers feeding her boss Frank Tassone — played by Hugh Jackman, also wearing competence on his sleeve — a pastrami sandwich and joking about all the moms who hang on his every handsome word. You’d hardly believe Pam Gluckin is a criminal.

Based on a true scandal first exposed in 2002, “Bad Education” is a gripping and diabolically funny psychodrama about the largest public-school embezzlement scheme in American history. Pam, it turns out, was cooking the books to pay off her credit card bills and fund various luxuries, including lavish home renovations. She’d stolen $250,000 by the time an accountant found reason to question her financial reports. Despite asking for Pam’s resignation and ostensibly rebuking her, Frank knew exactly what she’d been up to — and that’s only the tip of this $11.2 million racket.

“Bad Education,” premiering Saturday on HBO, uses its actors’ charms as a disarming mechanism. Janney and Jackman are the ideal surrogates for a story about sympathetic people doing dastardly things. After all, who is more sympathetic than Allison Janney and Hugh Jackman? Their built-in appeal lulls us into security before the movie upends the audience’s every assumption.

“It was great casting to put Hugh and me in these roles because we have played very easily likable characters,” Janney said by phone earlier this week. “I think we both play very real, human people who can be quirky at times. In this script, you could see that these were characters that were very well-liked. Frank was a demigod in the community. Pam liked how that rubbed off on her, that she works with him and everyone loves Frank. He could do no wrong. It was perfect because no one would suspect. Then when you slowly start to realize what’s going on, it’s even more shocking. Who’s going to look behind the curtain with these two?”

Allison Janney and Hugh Jackman in "Bad Education."

The script by Mike Makowsky ― writer of the 2018 film “I Think We’re Alone Now” and an alumnus of the real Long Island school ― hews closely to the specifics of Gluckin’s and Tassone’s lives. A 2004 New York magazine feature detailing the scandal describes her as gregarious, resourceful and dedicated to her job in spite of her transgressions. Gluckin and Tassone were close confidants. She’d endured more than one messy divorce, and he was living a double life at home, the details of which came spilling out. Both collected six-figure salaries, but they sought extravagances beyond what their incomes afforded them. “Bad Education” becomes a portrait of the lengths some people will go to secure wealth.

The film marks the second feature from Cory Finley, who also directed 2018’s “Thoroughbreds,” a tart “Heathers”-esque thriller about suburban teen girls (Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke) who plot a murder. HBO purchased “Education” out of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, paying a hefty $20 million for the broadcast rights. Finley and his producers couldn’t have known at the time how fortuitous that would be, as the movie will now debut when theaters are closed and everyone is stuck indoors due to the coronavirus. It joins the ranks of HBO’s best original movies, from “And the Band Played On” and “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge” to “Wit” and “Behind the Candelabra.”

“I knew early on, before we started generating lists of names, that we needed a very sympathetic, grounded Frank and Pam,” Finley said. “We needed actors that could go to dark places but could really bring you along and feel like rounded human beings and never tip over into cartoon villains. We didn’t know if we could get someone of Hugh and Allison’s caliber, but we were super lucky that I think Hugh had a similar reaction. Around the time we were casting was not too long after the amazing ‘I, Tonya’ run, and I’d always loved Allison.”


Jackman indeed felt similarly. “It was about the character, about doing something I hadn’t done before — I think something that audiences wouldn’t expect me to do, with some twists they hadn’t yet seen from me — and I’m fascinated by human nature,” he told The Daily Beast.

The pair had to telegraph the entire subtext of their characters’ relationship in only a few scenes together. When Pam taunts Frank with a bite of her sandwich, it’s because he’s on a strict vanity diet. He’s grimacing as he finishes a charcoal smoothie the color of tar. “I won’t tell anyone,” Pam coos as she waves the food in his face. Janney snarls while doing this, a tongue-in-cheek moment that signifies their easy rapport, and Jackman offers a knowing grin in response.

Cory Finley on the set of "Bad Education."

“The pastrami sandwich was my favorite because it’s such a fun little character moment, but it also is the movie in miniature: the two of them conspiring to eat something he shouldn’t be eating, and the joy of that,” Finley said. “It was a really small moment in the script. It just said, ‘Pam feeds him the pastrami sandwich.’ Both Hugh and Allison were such good improvisers. I had a sense that Allison had that skill, but I was amazed at how good Hugh was at it as well. I learned over the shoot to wait an extra beat before calling cut because if you just ask these actors to stay in their characters after their scripted section had run out, little interesting things would happen. In the final cut of the movie, we stay in that sandwich moment long past the moment the scripted scene ends. The last several bits were fully improvised. We also had a bee that kept bothering Allison because we were shooting outside. I think you can still see it in one moment. She sort of swats at something offscreen.”

Janney imagined that Pam’s misappropriations started small, as they often do for crooks. She needed to bankroll her daughter’s college tuition and no one noticed, so why not fix her car muffler, too? Might as well add the Christmas presents and beach house facelift to the list while she’s at it.

“I’m imagining it just with a drip, drip of things that she kept justifying over and over and over, until it became, ’You know what? I’m entitled to this. I deserve this,’” Janney said. “Then it just became very messy. Keeping up with the Joneses seemed very important to her in this script. I think they absolutely were drunk with their own power.”

Beyond the casting, what makes “Bad Education” so riveting is its setting. Schools are meant to be havens where kids are protected and bolstered as they mature into upstanding contributors to society. Being an educator is among the most noble of professions, and yet here are two who decided their line of work had rendered them impervious to guilt.

“People inherently want to trust the people who are in power, trust the people that hold the purse strings,” Janney said. “You want to believe that everyone has the best intentions, wants the best for your school, and wants the best for you. It goes to show you that you shouldn’t blindly trust people. You should always have checks and balances, especially for people in power who are supposed to be doing the right things for everybody. That’s just, unfortunately, what we’re dealing with today in more ways than one.”

[jo]

We were initially unable to publish the full review from VULTURE due to a suggested subscription restriction.

MOVIE REVIEW APR. 25, 2020
Bad Education Gives Hugh Jackman One of His Greatest Dramatic Roles
By Alison Willmore

Cory Finley’s sly dissection of a Long Island embezzlement scandal — premiering on HBO — plays to its leading man’s theatrical strengths. Photo: HBO


Hugh Jackman’s a showman at heart, an actor who’s always been better at projecting toward the back of the house than scaling down into naturalism. He can commit wholeheartedly and with admirable gusto to a Wolverine growl, and he can belt the hell out of some Rodgers and Hammerstein. But the same innate theatrical streak can come across as artificiality in less heightened roles — which is why he’s tended to be at his best in movies that lean into the quality. And Bad Education, the new film from Thoroughbreds director Cory Finley, is the kind of work that plays into Jackman’s strengths with a savvy precision. As Frank Tassone, school superintendent for the village of Roslyn on Long Island’s tonier North Shore, Jackman gives his best dramatic performance since he played the obsessive, hollow Robert Angier in The Prestige.

Frank is a man who spends his days patiently handling helicopter parents and jaunting off to attend education conferences over the weekend. The most significant relationship in his life appears to be with his job, which he’s both devoted to and tireless at, though on his desk he keeps a photo of the late wife he says he is still grieving for. He may be an administrator, but he’s a performer at heart, and what he loves most is being onstage, never seeming more alive than when he’s being adored. The first time we see him, he’s using the men’s restroom as his own personal green room, doing some last-minute primping in front of the mirror before going out in front of an applauding crowd in the auditorium. They’re congratulating him for the fact that under his stewardship, Roslyn has risen to a new high point on the Wall Street Journal’s annual list of public schools — though it rankles Frank that they’re only number four, and not number one.

Bad Education is based on the true story of a major embezzlement case that rocked the Roslyn school district, and that was actually reported by New York in 2004, in a feature that informed the script from writer (and Roslyn grad!) Mike Makowsky. But if you’re not already caught up on your turn-of-the-millennium Long Island scandals, I’d suggest steering clear of the details and letting the film unfold them for you. The narrative is pushed along with the help of Rachel (Geraldine Viswanathan), a reporter at the school newspaper who comes to Frank for some quotes on a self-described “puff piece” about an upcoming construction project. He challenges her to think bigger than that, a gesture of encouragement that’s practically conditioned, but that turns out to be an act of hubristic folly. She takes his words to heart and starts digging, her story running in parallel to his, and by the next time they have a talk, she’s started to unravel damning truths about the way the school’s money has been spent, a foe of Frank’s own inadvertent creation.

It’s a delicious touch, the teen journalist playing a role in exposing the truth, but then, a lot of the details of this story are worth savoring. One of the reasons the film is such a satisfying watch, if a little less straightforwardly entertaining than Thoroughbreds, is how it sidles up to new developments slowly, using each one to shed light on a previously unseen and often surprising aspect of Frank’s life and personality. He’s a man who’s been driven off the rails by the contradictions of his job, of running a school that’s meant to be a public good but that’s still obviously awash in commerce. He and all the people he works with are supposed to have chosen their careers for the meaning, not the money. But at the same time, as the movie underscores early on, a good school brings up housing prices and attracts more funding from parents — the people who then expect to be treated like customers. Frank runs his district as though it were a corporation, with SAT scores and college acceptance in place of profits. But then, if he’s the CEO in addition to being a humble civil servant, well, doesn’t he deserve some of the things that CEOs get?

Jackman has some able support in the film from Ray Romano as a trustee and supporter, and Rafael Casal as a former student. But Allison Janney, who plays Frank’s fellow administrator and functional accomplice, Pam Gluckin, is his most revealing screen partner. Pam’s slip-up sets events into motion, bringing attention to how openly school money is being spent on things that are not remotely school related. But before any of that happens, there’s a scene in which she and Frank grab a few minutes to eat lunch together outside; she eats a sandwich, and he sips on a diet smoothie. They have the teasing dynamic of two people who know each other very well, but what stands out about the scene, in retrospect, is how little they say out loud. The scene gives you a taste of how they ended up where they did, maybe never actively conspiring, just allowing things to happen, a little more each time. The perversity of it all is that Frank is both great at his job and a self-deluding criminal, and Jackman finds drollness in this juxtaposition alongside a sense of tawdry tragedy.

[jo]

Peter Debruge cites this Honorable Mention --

Honorable Mention: Bad Education

Bad Education
Photo : Courtesy of HBO

There’s no question in my mind that Cory Finley’s terrific second feature is a “movie”: This ultra-smart, surprise-packed look at a Long Island public-school embezzling scheme was conceived for the big screen, shot on 35mm and premiered at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival. Then again, it’s a sign of how radically the industry is changing that “Bad Education” was acquired by HBO and released to television, where it went on to win an Emmy for best TV movie. Such categories aside, this incredible true-crime story deserves wider attention still, showcasing a career-best performance by Hugh Jackman and pitch-perfect support from Allison Janney as a pair of educators who meant well, but twisted the system to their own advantage. (Watch on HBO Max.)

[jo]

A late review --

[hughmanity]

Gives recognition to the film and praise for Hugh's performance -also provides a perspective on what, for this particular New Yorker critic, was lost on the small screen.

www.newyorker.com/culture/2020-in-review/the-movies-that-mattered-in-2020

"Take a movie like Cory Finley’s “Bad Education.” It’s a drama, grounded in real events, about a school superintendent on Long Island, who is congenial, handsome, highly respected, and even more highly fraudulent, embezzling millions as he strolls the path to success. He is played by Hugh Jackman, and, when I caught the movie at a film festival, in late 2019, I reckoned that it was the best work that Jackman had ever done, as if he were testing the resilience of his own blessings; that famous smile was stretched to the cracking point. “Bad Education” never made it into American cinemas; it had to settle for homeschooling, with a slot on HBO, in April. Jackman wound up with an Emmy nomination instead of an Oscar nod, but that’s not the issue. Seen again on the small screen, the film looks a little seedier, and the precise balance that the actor found between fraudulence and bonhomie—truth or dare, so to speak—is lost."

[jo]

Seen again on the small screen, the film looks a little seedier, and the precise balance that the actor found between fraudulence and bonhomie—truth or dare, so to speak—is lost."

The writer had the opportunity to see it at TIFF - and he is in a position to make the comparison. That makes the decision of those producers to sell the film rights to HBO even more difficult to swallow.

Since the movie and Hugh have reaped so much praise -- the loss of Oscar awards recognition opportunity is even more defined.

I reckoned that it was the best work that Jackman had ever done, as if he were testing the resilience of his own blessings;

Hugh must at least be very pleased with the strong recognition given to his range! Logan/GreatestShowman/BadEducation - a triple header which strenghtens the perception that he is arguably the actor currently living who has the most versatility these days. Add to that the forthcoming THE MUSIC MAN, and the perception is even more strengthened as the stage is a different medium completely!

Thanks, hughmanity


JO

[jo]

Another accolade for BAD EDUCATION!

Vanity Fair ranks it 4th among the year's best and kudos for Hugh Jackman's portrayal. Richard Lawson ranks the movies.

www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/12/the-10-best-movies-of-2020?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=vanity-fair&utm_social-type=earned

4. Bad Education
This image may contain Sara Netanyahu Tie Accessories Accessory Human Person Coat Clothing Suit and Overcoat
COURTESY OF THE TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.



We’ve reached the corruption portion of this list. First up is Cory Finley’s exquisite Bad Education, a 2019 festival film picked up by HBO, where it quietly dropped on a Saturday in the first months of the pandemic, not getting nearly the attention it deserved. Bad Education, written by Mike Makowsky, is a fascinating character study of embezzlers within a Long Island school system. It’s a movie about liars, ones who tell themselves as many untruths as they do the people they are grifting. There’s something deeply scary about Bad Education. Not just because it exposes the shifty, squalid inner workings of two locally esteemed people—superintendent Frank (Hugh Jackman) and his deputy Pam (Allison Janney)—but because of what it provokes from us in the audience. Do we want to see them taken down? Sure. But also, we root for them in an unsettling way, which tells us something rather grim about the passes and excuses we afford powerful people. Finley lays out his film ingeniously, letting the scandal start as the tiniest thing, then growing like cracks on a windshield until the whole picture is totaled. It’s a moral thriller, really, one acted with keen precision by its cast. Jackman is especially persuasive, unctuous and pathetic but perversely magnetic. Bad Education doesn’t graft neatly onto the kleptocrats looting America right now—mostly because the latter camp’s villainy was so immediately obvious—but it does say something instructive about what people think they can get away with, and about how greed can topple even the most outwardly noble pillars of community.

[jo]

Some wrap-up tweets on 2020 performances --

[jo]

Did we miss this review?

It is different in that the whole critical comment focuses on the movie's social satire theme and treatment.

From VANITY FAIR --

NOTES ON A SCANDAL

The Sly Class Politics of HBO’s Bad Education

Cory Finley’s take on an infamous Long Island school embezzlement scandal, which stars Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney, has more on its mind than at first appears.

BY K. AUSTIN COLLINS

APRIL 27, 2020



Cory Finley’s Bad Education, which premiered on HBO Saturday, is perceptive. It’s the story of an infamous embezzlement scandal that rocked the Roslyn, Long Island school district in the early aughts and, from the start, had the makings of a movie. Maybe a few movies.

There’s the rising, falling, and eventually shattered public image of a local do-gooder, the once-beloved suburban superintendent Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman). There’s the story of Tassone’s secret life—not the one where he’s got a closet full of imported suits paid for on the school’s dime, but the fact that he’s a gay man with a partner of 33 years posing, at work, as a straight man with a widow. (He even has a poignant bridal photo on his desk.) Oh, and there’s the plainly astonishing fact of $11.2 million dollars of stolen taxpayer money—enough to spur the state comptroller to later intone that this event is “the largest, most remarkable, most extraordinary theft” from a school system in U.S. history.



Bad Education documents all of this with a verve that at times verges on satire, with all those feigned, teacherly smiles coming from the adults in the room. But the movie works best, in the end, by convincing us that these people are perfectly ordinary. Few things are more ordinary than opportunism. And even fewer things are more ordinary than the desire for status, which is what Bad Education, at its best, is about.

The movie’s main drama essentially kicks off when Roslyn High’s Rachel Bhargava (Geraldine Viswanathan), a student writing for the school newspaper, starts asking too many questions—and, simultaneously, the monetary indiscretions suddenly stop being so discreet (thanks a lot, Jimmy Tatro). But its moral center isn’t to be found in its attitude toward Frank or the money. That lies in the film’s exposure of the insidious links between “school quality” and property values. Thanks to Tassone’s stewardship—his emphasis on test scores and elite college acceptances—Roslyn’s schools are the best on Long Island’s wealthy North Shore, despite Roslyn lacking the name-wealth recognition of, say, Syosset. Yet somehow, despite those high SAT scores, Roslyn’s schools are still beset with leaks and mold. Its Harvard acceptances imply much more about wealth and how it’s managed (or not) than they do about quality of learning.

What matters to the parents of Roslyn, or at least what impresses them enough not to run screaming from the ludicrous school budget, is the high chance of sending their kids to schools like Yale, whose mascot—the Bulldogs—Roslyn just so happens to share. What’s revealed about Tassone, at the same time, isn’t that he’s a bad guy, but that he’s an incredibly, even poignantly vain one. Again, appearances. With that realization, everything falls into place—including the ways in which an otherwise well-intentioned civil servant might be led to, say, cover up for a respected colleague’s embezzlement in order to maintain a sense of status. The school’s status, that is.


Finley’s film glides with just the right amount of style, nailing a tone that shifts between the comical positivity of educators and the sad undercurrents they reveal when they rip their masks off. For anyone who applied to college in the aughts—a period which, in retrospect, feels like the start of distinctly poisonous era, as a cottage industry of advisors, writing counselors, and college application “tutors” further cemented the idea that wealth was the only reliable indicator of admissions success—Bad Education is an astute and uncomfortable return to a world in which where (or whether!) you go to college can seem to stand in for your worth. The recent college admissions scandal that rocked Southern California is, of course, a notable case in point. Smartly and with enticing implications, Bad Education suggests that Tassone is subject to the same misapprehension. His entire lifestyle—his basic self-conception—depends on it.

Does this explain Tassone’s vanity—the facial surgeries, the no-carb diet, the sincere but overt erudition? To say nothing of a subplot involving the younger exotic dancer (played by Rafael Casal) Frank has an affair with. The movie is wise to allow this romance to feel more sincere than salacious, and wiser still not to reduce these mens’ affections to a matter of Tassone’s self-absorption while also making that vanity a clear subtext to what’s going on. Thanks to Jackman’s performance and Bad Education’s multi-pronged approach, this Tassone is appreciably complicated. He’s not a hero—even before he becomes the bad guy, his easy manipulation of people through compliments and concern makes him less than faultless—but he’s also not quite a villain.


The same is true of Janney’s Gluckin, who takes the fall for the embezzlement before Tassone does. Her excesses are so much more overt and casual—but they’re more comprehensible with the added context of scenes between Gluckin and Tassone, old friends who don’t have to say what they mean for their words to have meaning. They have their secrets. Tassone’s gay life is one; the embezzlement is another.

But they also have their reasons. Finley’s approach to this story can be summarized, in part, by an astute line from the Robert Kolker article from which it was adapted: “Being the head of a wealthy school system is a little like being the headwaiter at Alain Ducasse. You’re at the top of your profession, but at the end of the day, you’re still a waiter.” In the end, the pair’s justification for their crimes, convincing or not, matters much less than the plain reality of status—and the cost paid by its shepherds, people who so often lack it.

[jo]

Not sure if this has been previously included in the reviews here --

but I don't have even a faint recollection that it was posted here - sorry.


It is very disappointing that Hugh Jackman's best-reviewed film portrayal is not part of the Oscar acting honors
nominations recently announced.

This Vanity Fair review is actually from 2019 -- when the movie was first seen, at the Toronto International Film
Festival.

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL
Hugh Jackman Transforms Yet Again in the Fascinating Bad Education
Perhaps the world’s greatest showman gives another gripping performance in a festival standout.

BY RICHARD LAWSON

SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

COURTESY OF THE TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.

Twenty-five years into a fascinatingly varied career, it’s still a thrill to see Hugh Jackman try something new. Or, at least to give his famous charisma a different shade. Last year, Jackman went relatively minimalist in the political downfall drama The Front Runner, a sharp, underseen diagram of fatal stubbornness. This year, Jackman turns up the charm a little—while lathering it in a thin coat of smarm—for Bad Education, a tidy and engrossing corruption drama that premiered here at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday.

A detailing of a real-life embezzlement scandal in a Long Island school district, Bad Education allows Jackman to explore the profundity in the petty. As far as financial crimes in America go, former Roslyn school district superintendent Frank Tassone’s theft was relatively minor. (He did steal millions, though.) And yet, there was so much existential squirm behind his actions, this movie suggests, so much want and insecurity and indignant entitlement. It makes for a gripping character study, one that Jackman delves into with his usual full-bodied commitment. Though the once beloved Tassone prided himself on his appearance, his fancy suits and slicked back hair and surgically tightened face, there’s nothing glamorous about the role. It’s an ugly thing, Tassone’s sneaky desperation, the way he launders his misdeeds in self-righteousness.

A lesser actor might play all this with too broad a version of pathetic villainy, figuring all of Tassone’s stated good intentions—he really cared about the kids, he swears—just another part of the elaborate lie. But Jackman does as a trained actor should and operates from the truth of the character; he plays what Tassone believes. Which makes the downward arc of the movie that much more interesting. Jackson makes our sympathies fluid, so it's much easier to ride the subtle undulations of the movie. We learn with it, just as its characters do.

[mamaleh]

It is definitely a shame that the changing rules governing awards and HBO's pickup of the film without first scheduling even a short theatrical run resulted in BAD ED's falling through the cracks. HJ's reviews were off-the-charts and into the stratosphere. In a normal year, he'd have been a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination and highly deservedly so. Really rotten luck.

Ellen

[hughmanity]

^couldn't agree more

[jo]

A late review --

FICTIONMACHINE


DRAMA, REVIEW


REVIEW: Bad Education (2019)

The key to basing a film on real-life events is focusing on the elements that matter, and stripping away all of the elements that don’t. Screenwriter Mike Makowsky undertakes the process extremely well in Bad Education, while director Cory Finley presents the story on-screen with efficiency and a focus on character. Made for HBO, this film represents smart, topical entertainment at its best.

Superintendent Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) supervises a hugely successful school district in Long Island with the support of his deputy Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney). When a reporter for a school newspaper (Geraldine Viswanathan) discovers financial irregularities, it sparks off one of the largest education scandals in US history.

Discussing the merits of Bad Education requires giving the game away in terms of the film’s plot, so unless you are already familiar with the details of this scandal – it was covered extensively in the US press at the time – you may wish to simply take the recommendation to check it out and stop reading right here.

This is a film driven by performances. In particular it offers a genuine tour-de-force for Hugh Jackman, who is often trapped between two personas – grim Wolverine Jackman and breezy musical theatre Jackman. Bad Education offers a distinctive and well-rounded character with a refreshing complexity. It begins by reflecting Tassone as a smart, wonderfully groomed crusader for the benefit of his students. He wants the best for all high schoolers under his watch, and takes time to know their names and to individually encourage them to succeed. He is popular with the district school board, the parents, and the students. When student journalist Rachel Bhargava (Viswanathan) begins to learn uncomfortable truths about Tassone’s paradisic reputation, a different man is revealed. He is vain, corrupt, and even cruel when his career is threatened.

The beauty of it all is that both versions of Tassone are real: one is not a mask for the other, but rather they are two ends of the same complicated person. It presents a real challenge for Jackman’s performance, and in capably combining the two facets Jackman delivers what is likely the performance of his career. In all honesty there is no real mystery to be found in Bad Education. As soon as the idea of embezzlement is raised, it is obviously where the money has gone. The actual appeal of the film is not the story, but how its characters negotiate it.

Jackman has great support. Allison Janney is such a talented actor that praising her work feels like stating the obvious. Geraldine Viswanathan is excellent as Rachel Bhargava, following up on promising work in the comedy Blockers (2018) to confirm she’s one of the more interesting performers out there at the moment. A real surprise is Ray Romano, popular sitcom star, who showcases an unexpected gift for drama.

This is a realistic, intelligent drama with a strong cast and a brilliantly flawed protagonist. It feels timely and relevant, but most of all it simply makes for top-notch smart entertainment.