The School for Good and Evil premieres globally Oct. 19 on Netflix.
In 2013, author Soman Chainani released the first book in her revisionist fairy tale fantasy series, The School for Good and Evil. Sharing elements of both J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and the musical book by Winnie Holzman for Wicked, The School for Good and Evil explores the black-and-white notions of good and evil under the roof of a magical school that teaches the next generation of both. In director/writer Paul Feig’s very capable hands, the movie adaptation manages to succeed as a broad-scale mythology Bacchanalia and an intimate tale about the enduring power of deep friendship through unimaginable challenges. Glorious to look at and more surprising than expected in its storytelling, The School for Good and Evil is a romp that should have more chapters.
Chainani’s first book and the movie both serve as the origin story of two teen best friends from the fictional, rural village of Gavaldon. Fair-haired Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) is the Cinderella-esque dreamer who loves designing clothes and desperately wishes for something greater outside of her simple life. Agatha (Sofia Wylie) is her hot mess best friend who doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her and is relatively content just spending time with Sophie and lurking outside the attention of their nasty neighbors who hate them both. But that all changes when Sophie gets wind of The School for Good and Evil, a venerable and secret institute which trains the next generation of fairy tale heroes and villains, and sometimes recruits worthy outsiders to join their ranks. Desperate to be one of those worthy “readers,” Sophie makes a wish to be recruited and her wish is granted. Scooped up by a frightening skeletal bird known as a stymph, Agatha gets dragged along too when she tries to save Sophie from its clutches. Soon, the two are deposited in their assigned schools: Sophie in the “Nevers” side which caters to evil and Agatha in the “Evers” side which cultivates the most worthy students towards earning their heroic stories.
Upset at being separated and sorted into the “wrong” schools, Sophie and Agatha have to navigate the toxic personalities of the students around them, their unsympathetic respective school mistresses – Lady Lesso (Charlize Theron) of the Nevers and Prof. Clarissa Dovey (Kerry Washington) of the Evers – and the whims of their flighty Schoolmaster (Laurence Fishburne). From there, the friends connect on the downlow to figure out their predicament. Sophie wants in with the Evers, but Agatha just wants to go home. However, she’s willing to facilitate the path to Sophie’s dream, helping her win true love’s kiss from the campus shining star, and son of King Arthur, Prince Tedros (Jamie Flatters).
From there, Feig and his production team introduce us, and the girls, to the expansive grounds of the school where we meet plenty of bizarre creatures like very bitey posey flowers, pumpkin-faced scarecrows that become Reapers at night, tattoos that turn into fiery dragons, and creepy cherubs with functional arrows who act as school guards. There’s plenty to soak up in every scene so the visual effects are plentiful but on average, very well done. In early establishing scenes, there’s maybe too much visual pilfering from the overall look and silhouette of Hogwarts from the Harry Potter films but as the binary looks of the two houses assert themselves aesthetically, it lessens. There’s also no shortage of big sequences and scenarios thrown at us, from magic trials to two balls in each house so The School for Good and Evil never gets boring. Feig packs the two-hour and 27-minute runtime well so it flies by without feeling overstuffed with just bells and whistles.
In fact, the strongest moments throughout the movie are the smaller ones between Agatha and Sophie, as well as Evers misfit Gregor (Ally Cubb) and the initially haughty but empathetic Tedros. As Agatha observes the not-very-nice behavior of her fellow Evers and their unrelenting vanity, she prods at Gregor, Prof. Dovey, and Tedros to challenge the shallow status quo. Through Aggie’s compassionate eyes the norms are challenged and as Sophie slips into temptation to do bad to achieve her dreams, she’s the unfailing conscience of the piece. Wylie is incredibly good at making that come through without being drippy or maudlin. There’s no doubt why characters (and we) seem smitten with her as she’s got sharp comedic timing when she’s poking at authority yet is entirely sincere when Aggie is battling for Sophie’s very soul. Caruso is also very good in the more arch role and really embraces chewing the evil scenery as she slips into the Nevers side.
They both get excellent support from veterans like Theron, who’s basically doing a toned-down riff on her Ravenna from The Huntsman movies, and a super chipper Washington who knows how to balance cloying with sincere. Cate Blanchett is also given a purposeful narrator role that is vital to the story and plays into the fairy tale tweaks that work well overall.
There’s great balance to the whole piece, but the real heart is firmly focused on the friendship between Sophie and Agatha.
The School for Good and Evil is a very satisfying playground for Feig to show off his considerable skills for light-on-its-feet storytelling, aesthetically posh and pleasing visuals, emotion-based storytelling, and arguably his most successful turn with visual effects. There’s great balance to the whole piece, but the real heart is firmly focused on the friendship between Sophie and Agatha which is what really pushes this through as a memorable and fun watch.
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