"Bad Education": review

Based on a New Yorker article titled "The Bad Superintendent" by Robert Kolker, 2019's "Bad Education" recounts the largest case of embezzlement in US public-school history, perpetrated by school superintendent Dr. Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) and his assistant superintendent Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney). The film also stars Ray Romano as Bob Spicer—a real-estate broker and the head of the local school board who is also a friend of Tassone's—and Geraldine Viswanathan as Rachel Bhargava, an initially meek but ultimately tenacious reporter for a high-school paper.

It is 2002, and Rachel is a student at Roslyn High School, which is currently ranked #4 in the nation but on track to become #1. An enormous "skywalk" project is slated to begin construction; the new addition to the high school's campus will cost around $8 million, so it's crucial that the new budget for Roslyn High be passed in order for construction to begin. Rachel is given the "puff piece" assignment of writing about the future skywalk, but she soon realizes she's on to something huge. "Bad Education" is the story of how, little by little, cracks in the façade begin to show: Roslyn High isn't the quality school it makes itself out to be, and Frank Tassone isn't the stand-up fellow he portrays himself as. Little by little, the castle begins to crumble, largely thanks to the persistence of a shy school reporter—Rachel—whom Frank Tassone himself had cavalierly encouraged to be aggressive in her investigations.

I was reminded of any number of expose-the-scandal films from "All the President's Men" to "Spotlight." The metaphor of the slowly overflowing toilet is somewhat overused, but it applies whenever you sit down to watch films about the revelation of systemic rot: there's that slow, building sense of inevitable doom that dominates your thoughts and feelings as you come to understand just how deep the rot goes. Tassone's appearance is a sham: he has a picture of his long-dead wife on his desk at the office, but in reality, he's gay and "married" (the movie isn't clear on Frank's status) to a life-partner named Tom (Stephen Spinella). Not only that, but Frank is cheating on Tom with a former student named Kyle Contreras (Rafael Casal of "Blindspotting" fame). The lies go deep.

Director Corey Finley injects "Bad Education" with plenty of comedy, suspense, cynicism, and gloom. The principals playing the culprits do a fine job of radiating a sense of offended virtue, as if they can't quite wrap their heads around the idea that they might be guilty of having done something bad. "Bad Education" plays, in part, like a low-key comedy, but ultimately, it's a tragedy, and quite possibly a commentary on the rotten nature of the US public-school system in general. The movie relays to us, through dialogue, how interconnected the various parts of a county are: a school's ranking bolsters its prestige, allowing for more students from that area to be accepted at Ivy League universities. There's a concomitant upswing in local property values as everyone suddenly wants to move to that district. Local businesses also benefit as a result. Everything is connected, and Frank Tassone is aware of this, which is why he's desperate to keep the ever-expanding scandal from exploding beyond the context of the local schools. But Rachael Bhargava has other plans; her well-researched article eventually comes out in the school paper, and at that point, the scandal is out of everyone's control.

The movie's soundtrack feels like a parody of the selection of Mozart tunes used in "Amadeus." In that film, Mozart is portrayed as a creative genius who is also a self-destructive party animal, and Mozart's music is often used, in Miloš Forman's film, as an ironic celestial counterpoint to Mozart's ugly, baser self. So it goes with Michael Abels's soundtrack for "Bad Education," which also aims for a loud, not-very-subtle irony.

Hugh Jackman is a talented actor who was, I think, the right pick for this movie. He plays the role with equal parts charm and smarm. The real-life Frank Tassone apparently complimented Jackman on his portrayal of the fallen superintendent, but Tassone also noted that the film's suggestion that he had had relations with a former student is entirely fictitious. Allison Janney, her Lawng Guyland accent firmly in place, is fantastic as Pam Gluckin, a cheerfully cynical serial divorcee now on her umpteenth husband. Ray Romano stands out as a school-board chief who initially goes along with Frank's schemes to contain the scandal before gaining a conscience and doing his part to fight for justice.

The official cost of the 2002 embezzlement scandal turned out to be around $6.5 million, which isn't far from the cost of the planned-for skywalk addition to Roslyn High. That's quite a bit of cash, and "Bad Education" will leave you shaking your head at the state of American education. It's obviously at least partly fictional, but since most of the actual story is a matter of public record (starting with Robert Kolker's "The Bad Superintendent"), confirming the film's highlights shouldn't be difficult. Give the movie a watch.