Bad Education (2019) on Netflix
On Long Island, superintendent Frank Tassone has made Roslyn High one of the country's top schools. A student reporter looking into a planned skywalk finds irregularities in district finances.
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- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb7.1/1046,554 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 2002, Frank Tassone runs the Roslyn Union Free School District on Long Island, where he and assistant superintendent Pam Gluckin have lifted Roslyn High to fourth in the country. The school's results feed the local economy, and Bob Spicer, the school board president and a real estate broker, benefits. Parents and students admire Frank, who says his wife died years ago and waves off the advances of local mothers. At a Las Vegas conference he begins an affair with Kyle Contreras, a former student he meets at a bar. Rachel Bhargava, a reporter for the school paper, is writing about a planned skywalk when Frank tells her to report like a top journalist. Her inquiries into the project irritate Pam, and Rachel notices irregularities in the district's finances.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Bad Education (2019)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
The film's epilogue says Frank Tassone was convicted of embezzling $2.2 million and sentenced to 4 to 12 years; Pam Gluckin pled guilty to $4.3 million and testified against him. Due to an oversight in state pension rules, Tassone is still slated for a $173,495.04 annual pension after the largest school theft in American history.- Mike Makowsky wrote the screenplay from inside the story: in 2004 he was a middle school student in the Roslyn Union Free School District when superintendent Frank Tassone was arrested for first-degree larceny. He bought the rights to Robert Kolker's New York article and returned to his hometown to research.
- Screenwriter Mike Makowsky expected to portray Frank Tassone as a straightforward villain, but interviews with his former teachers and neighbors revealed a more nuanced man that shaped the screenplay. The filmmakers chose not to involve any of the perpetrators, out of respect for the town of Roslyn.
- Hugh Jackman worked with his dialect coach, Jess Platt, to perfect Frank Tassone's accent; Jackman said he can reach 80 percent of an accent easily, but that final 20 percent is what matters, and Platt, a Brooklyn native, was on set with him yelling and screaming.
SPOILER
The film's depiction of Frank Tassone living with one man in Manhattan while secretly owning a house in Las Vegas for a 32-year-old male exotic dancer appears accurate, except that the film portrays the dancer as a former student; Tassone denied ever having a relationship with a student in 36 years in education.
