Bad Education

This show had me glued to the screen. I loved it. My only question is, why was there an OR scene of him getting a face life and never seeing him recovering. My only explanation is ,It must have been filmed and cut. Then why include the operation.

Great cast, great story, strong creative script. Interesting story of corruption of surprisingly large scale in underfunded education field. Nice work on showing many sides of main characters. Unlike most of movies that keep everything black and white. Allison Janney killed it again. one problem tho: they could focus more on ordinary teachers that lead poor lives. How that was a major spit in their faces.

Impeccable performances by all actors. One of Hugh Jackman's best. The way the story unfolds just isn't very engaging. There are few surprising twists or turns. You know everything there is to know very early on, and then you basically just watch the story play itself out the way you expected it to all along. This is a solid film with a flat storyline problem. Not bad at all, but not very thrilling either. 7/10 is fair.

One of the movies for a nation who is obsessed with food, snacks and consumerism. There are more eating, crunching, sipping and drinking than talking. Every few scenes you can see someone using their mouth for chewing instead of talking. You can easily observe the fuel for obesity contagion in the US if you take a look at the last a decade or two's Hollywood movies. Take the Aussie Russell Crowe example, watch his movies by concentrating how much he is made eating or snacking and understand why he is over-weight most of the time. Somebody should put a stop to this food and beverage industry funding to stop the dramatic decrease in health...

...but adding an overbearingly loud satirical score, doesn't make this a satirical dark comedy. For that matter, where was the comedy? This film would've showed better and captivated the audience by making it a drama, with a proper score, faster pacing, with elevated personalities and dialogue, instead of drab and monotonic characters. Jackman and Janney were the only reason I didn't fall asleep, and their outstanding performances is the majority of my rating. Poor judgement on the screenplay's genre choice, but decent directing and cinematography. A generous 7/10 from me.

Bad Edcuation is one of the most incisive, sharp-as-a-new-knife and darkly funny films about politics since Election - and like that, it goes to show that focusing on the school system, from the corrupt to the innocent and everything in between, to get to the heart of all that. When it comes to power and control (and what journalism can do, always worth being reminded), this story is as potent an exploration as one could ask for right now, and it's all painfully relevant to right now. This is just a brilliant, deft and intense script, it's an absolute career high point for Jackman (I now feel like Reitman let him even more down with that Gary Hart movie, given what a super saavy but way in over his head politician he's playing in the guise of a superintendent), not to mention Janney and Romano et al, and the direction, which is laser focused on driving the character moments and psychology of every single potential moment, is a major leap forward from the guy who brought us Thoroughbreds. Secret MVP: Frank's black-death smoothie. Also, Viswanathan is a revelation in her unassuming way.

An interesting story told in an interesting artsy way The acting was first class. You know why criminals get caught? Not because of the crime they committed, they get greedy.

This movie is much more than the famous early 21st century scandal and the actors chosen to portray their respective roles are undoubtedly best placed in every moment. For me, this movie was not just about embezzlement of funds but more than that, the two minutes of agony that Dr. Frank Tassone(Hugh Jackman) had against the system and the world was the highlight. Although shown as a negative character, I could empathise with the actions taken by a public school teacher and how frustrating it is to be a part of a system where people instead of appreciating their mentors, forget and move on in their lives. The movie is about the mindset that the people in public service develop over-time, which is what compels them to do things that even they consider heinous. A frsutrated person tries to reason out with himself that his actions are justified and this is what drills him deeper into an abyss of negligence from which it is unable to crawl out. It all comes down to the role that we are expected to play in this world. We often forget the small, yet significant contribution of some people in our lives. That is why we should appreciate the people who help us in becoming who we are today, otherwise the other Dr. Frank-s won't have an option but to repeat the history again and again

Watched this based on Chicago Tribune critic who called it appallingly funny. He was half right. It was appalling. Maybe it was because I was looking for humor but found it depressing in every way and what was not depressing was cliched. One sociopath after another trying to be more venal than the rest. Who needs it?

This is advertised as "comedy", but, that's almost false advertising. Sure, a few situations are depicted from a comedic angle, but, that's it. There are no real jokes here (good or bad ones) and there's very little fun. As for a "drama", there's not enough of it. We have very little insight into the thoughts and feelings of the main characters. It ain't a documentary-like movie either. There are way too many unrealistic things and the whole "young non-white reporter from a school paper breaks the story of a corrupt white man" angle is so worn-out it leaves a bad taste in the mouth (not to mention that, no, that's not really what happened, an anonymous letter started the chain of events, not a story in a school paper). Also, it's kind of silly. This man was earning 200K/year and "stole" about as much. Keep in mind, he did not really steal, he abused his position to make the district pay for his expenses, some of each are actually non-totally non-professional. Sure, it's bad, but, let's be perfectly frank, all such people (and no, not just white men) do similar things. I'm pretty sure a lot of them do it for more money. So, this is hardly a worthwhile story on its own. Would you watch a movie about a non-interesting sprinter that runs 100 m in 11.1 seconds (which is a very good time, mind you, just not nearly enough for any major competition)? So, what is this movie, really? What does it want to achieve, depict? It's really not clear. As far as acting goes, it's OK. Nothing special, but fine. The scene when Wolverine tries to persuade the girl to not run the story is bad and it might as well be because it's obviously fake. In contrast, the scene(s) when he persuades the board to not report his right-hand woman (who, BTW, had stolen twice as much as he) are much, much better; again, most probably because they are partly real. It's actually nice to see Wolverine not play, well, Wolverine. :) The story, apart from the parts based on real life, is pretty bad, the directing is good in general, but, starts to crumble near the end. All things considered, this is not worth a watch, unless you are very young or naive and believe that people working in the school system are somehow immune from corruption.