The School for Good and Evil movie review

MOVIE TITLE: The School for Good and Evil

This action fantasy movie is now available exclusively on Netflix.

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 2 hours 27 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: B

IN A NUTSHELL:

In the village of Gavaldon, two misfits and best friends, Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) and Agatha (Sofia Wylie), share the unlikeliest of bonds. Sophie, a golden-haired seamstress, dreams of escaping her dreary life to become a princess, while Agatha, with her grim aesthetic and offbeat mother, has the makings of a real witch. One night under a blood-red moon, a powerful force sweeps them away to the School for Good and Evil – where the true stories behind every great fairy tale begin. Yet something is amiss from the start: Sophie is dropped into the School for Evil, run by the glamorous and acid-tongued Lady Lesso (Charlize Theron), and Agatha in the School for Good, overseen by the sunny and kind Professor Dovey (Kerry Washington).

As if navigating classes with the offspring of the Wicked Witch (Freya Parks), Captain Hook (Earl Cave), and King Arthur (Jamie Flatters) wasn’t hard enough, according to the Schoolmaster (Laurence Fishburne), only true love’s kiss can change the rules and send the girls to their rightful schools and destiny. But when a dark and dangerous figure (Kit Young) with mysterious ties to Sophie reemerges and threatens to destroy the school and the world beyond entirely – the only way to a happy ending is to survive their real-life fairytale first.

The magical mayhem was directed by Paul. He also wrote the screenplay based on the book by Soman Chainani. Soman has a cameo performance in the movie as one of the teachers in the School of Evil.

THINGS I LIKED:

I absolutely adore Cate Blanchett. I wish we could have seen her in this, but it’s still great to hear her voice as The Storian.
Rachel Bloom is hilarious and so talented. It was fun to see her as Honora and I’d love to see her in even more movies. She was perfect in the TV show “My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.”
The two leading ladies are Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie, matched by Charlize Theron and Kerry Washington.
Laurence Fishburne always makes a movie better.
The costume design is a lot of fun. You can now see some of them on display in a pop-up store in the Grove in Los Angeles, CA.
Most movies like this show one-dimensional characters that are either good or bad, so I appreciate that this story shows us characters that are a little bit of both.
It does feel fantastical that allows us to escape into a new world.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

The movie is WAY too long. It feels like it would be better as a TV series or a limited movie series.
There are so many side characters that we don’t get to know much about, making the entire movie feel overstuffed.
Despite all of the action and drama, I felt bored at times.
I was surprised by bad acting moments from award-winning stars who I know can do better. That seems to be happening more and more with Netflix movies.
There are some plot holes as the rules of the universe seem to change. For example, sometimes we see a character as an ugly witch and then, without explanation, she changes back into her beautiful self.
Characters come and go quickly. It’s sometimes hard to know which ones are the most important ones to focus on.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Lots of magical violence
Some scary images
People die

THEMES:

Friendship
Trust
Power
Betrayal
Good and Evil

FUNNY LINES:

“Can I touch your hair? Most witches don’t have princess hair. I bet it smells like cake. I love cake.” – Hort (Earl Cave)

INTERESTING LINES:

“I don’t believe that anyone is truly good or evil because people are complicated.” – Agatha (Sofia Wylie)

“It’s not cheating if you win. It’s only cheating if you get caught.” – Rafal (Kit Young)

“One doesn’t measure one’s goodness just by how one looks. It’s about what one does.” – Professor Dovey (Kerry Washington)

“Magic follows emotion. The stronger the emotion, the more powerful the magic. Summon enough passion, and you can accomplish anything.” – Professor Dovey (Kerry Washington)

“The world of story needs great heroes, and villains, to teach the people of the outside world to make choices to find their way.” – School Master (Laurence Fishburne)