The setting could be a supermarket, a street, a restaurant or even a petrol station. You could be alone, or with your family. You can be 15 or 55, but in any of those cases, chances are that if you meet a teacher outside of the educational environment you would feel totally out of your depth. 

Teachers are responsible of our education, responsible -together with our parents- of making us fully-functioning adults able to survive in the world. They are either feared, hated or loved, as rare is the case in which a teacher is neither of those cases. Teachers are the bridge between parents and students, sometimes helping children cope with difficult issues in their lives, motivating them in the darkest instances. 

Sidney Poitier on To Sir, With Love, Robin Williams on Dead Poets Society and also on Good Will Hunting or Michelle Pfeiffer on Dangerous Minds are only some of the most memorable examples of teachers acting as positive influences for their students, helping them thrive and work towards their dreams.

Teachers are supposed to be figures of authority who hold the key to knowledge that is necessary for our development, a great power that sadly, sometimes does not get enough credit in our times. 

But what if it did, just not in the right way? 

Despite his immense likability, in Bad Education, Hugh Jackman plays the role of an educator that seems closer to that of Matthew Broderick on the underrated Election. In that film Broderick’s character was a respected teacher determined to stop the character played by Reese Witherspoon from becoming the student body president, here Jackman plays a beloved and successful educator facing a scandal that can destroy his career and as well as his life.

Directed by Cory Finley, and also starring Allison Janney, Ray Romano, Annaleigh Ashford and Geraldine Viswanathan among others, Bad Education is based on the true story -reported on the New York Magazine– of Frank Tassone, an inspirational, motivating superintendent of an American school facing an embezzlement scandal. 

Before analyzing the film further, it must be said that both Janney -it is difficult to think of a film in which she has not been something other that brilliant- and Jackman chew every scene they are in, portraying the different emotional stages their characters go through, never losing an inch of credibility in the process, something which is especially true in the case of the Australian actor, who was deservedly nominated as Outstanding Lead Actor in this year’s Emmy Awards. 

We spend the majority of the film in the company of Jackman and, as the plot progresses, he succeeds at playing with our pre-conceptions and the sympathy he has gained in his career to go from a lovable, intelligent, charming superintendent to a ruthless, desperate, manipulative criminal all the time hidden under an impersonal suit and a perfectly combed hair. 

Bad Education also succeeds at making a statement about the importance of the struggle to bring the truth to the surface, something that sadly has become far too relevant in a world of fake news and alternative facts.

In addition to this, the film uses flawlessly its setting -the classical, middle of the road American school- to show how the focus for being the very best might blind people, fooling them into the idea that these great achievements will result in a brilliant future, whilst sadly, for a number of cases the only outcome is to become another overachiever, over prepared and over-qualified for jobs that are already occupied or are non existent. 

It is easy to see why Bad Education was awarded the Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie, as thanks to a straightforward and intelligent direction from Finley -who after this film and 2017’s Thoroughbreds has a promising future ahead- and a tight script, without extra unnecessary plot devices or explanations, by Mike Makowsky, Bad Education brings to the screen a real case in a non-exploitative manner and also makes us question how easily the system can be corrupted and how people can (accidentally or not) turn a blind eye to sketchy situations. 

Bad Education is a highly recommendable and effective film that brings us a sobering look at the lives of the people in charge of teaching us. Furthermore, it reminds us that no matter how high we perceive our teachers when we are at school, they are human beings able to make mistakes and commit hideous acts which might be more memorable than the content of any subject in the school curriculum.