Renowned television producer JC Lee, who is a part of hit shows such as "How to Get Away with Murder" and "The Morning Show," makes his directorial debut with "Bad Genius" from Vertical Entertainment. Lee penned the film's screenplay with Julius Onah, a remake of a same-titled 2017 Thai film.
Lynn (Callina Liang) is a brilliant scholarship student at a prestigious private school who dreams of attending Julliard to play the piano. Her father, Meng (Benedict Wong), works tirelessly to instill the value of hard work in Lynn, knowing that every dollar counts.
On her first day at her new school, Lynn meets Grace (Taylor Hickson), who is quickly wowed by Lynn's math skills. The two build a friendship through tutoring sessions. Things turn when Lynn decides to help Grace cheat on an exam. After her overall GPA goes up, Grace blabs to her rich tool boyfriend Pat (Samuel Braun), who sees dollar signs. The trio then devises an ingenious cheating scheme to help fellow friends ace their exams.
As their underground cheating operation expands, eventually, fellow scholar student Bank (Jabari Banks) is pulled into the mix, and Lynn finds herself at the center of a high-stakes game that tests her morals and pits her against the American education system as the conspirators try and pull off their biggest heist yet, conning the SAT.
I never saw the original "Bad Genius" or the later TV series remake. However, the trailer caught my attention, so I viewed the film. We follow the set formula of the coming-of-age high-school heist movie. We are shown Lynn's skills, and Calina Liang, as our lead, performs well as we can empathize with the motives/what drives the main character to break the law because it's written like that. Grace, played by Taylor Hickson, gives good, solid work. Samuel Braun is good at tapping into the rich boy snob protocol, but the two who surprised me were Jabari Banks and Benedict Wong, as both men were against type in both characters they portrayed.
"Bad Genius" never overstays its welcome as the runtime is short. Viewers who like their plots fleshed out may have trouble with the plot-clogging problems of the third act. Thankfully, Liang and Banks have excellent chemistry and elevate the clichéd third-act nerve-rattlers. While the resolution is somewhat generic, "Bad Genius" is a harmless one-time watch that shows promise for JC Lee as a director.
Final Grade " B-
"Bad Genius" arrives on VOD Friday, October 11th..
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