Based on a true story, Bad Education involves a student reporter who uncovers an embezzlement scandal at the Roslyn School District, in Long Island. Hugh Jackman plays the superintendent of the district who attempts to set things right – via a cover-up. Needless to say, things get messy. Allison Janney and Ray Romano co-star in the feature, which is headed to HBO. Dig the trailer below.

Bad Education Trailer

In the early 2000s, respected school superintendant was arrested in an $11.2 million larceny scandal. How did it happen? Bad Education is here to tell you, adapting this true story (which was profiled in both NY Mag and Vanity Fair). Bad Education “follows Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) and Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney) who reign over a popular Long Island school district on the verge of the nation’s top spot, spurring record college admissions and soaring property values. But when an embezzlement scheme surfaces that threatens to destroy all they’ve built, Frank is forced to maintain order and secrecy — by whatever means necessary.”

As the NY Mag article reveals, when the scandal first arose, the real Tassone made a plea to the school board to keep things quiet:

His message was clear: No good could come from going public. Voters could hardly be expected to reelect school-board members who’d let something like that happen in a place like this.

And he was probably right. But what the board couldn’t have known was that Tassone was not just protecting Pam Gluckin. He was also protecting himself.

Cory Finley (Thoroughbreds) helms the film, with a script by Mike Makowsky. Ray Romano plays Big Bob Spicer, the school board president, and the cast also includes Geraldine Viswanathan, Alex Wolff, Rafael Casal, and Annaleigh Ashford.

Meredith Borders reviewed Bad Education for /Film at TIFF, and wrote:

The stakes are high, the story’s juicy, the performances are terrific, but the film never crosses over into must-watch territory, feeling a bit more like an elevated made-for-TV exposé than the sophomore effort of the filmmaker behind the deliciously wicked Thoroughbreds.

Bad Education arrives on HBO April 25.

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