L'Accademia del Bene e del Male

Fun to watch with my older kids, never really boring. Some cheesy moments but nothing in comparison to how cheesy and unbearable Descendants is so if you have to pick one go with THIS one. Fantastic art direction and costuming also really brings the whole vibe of the story together. And having some famous older actors we love was a very nice touch too and they seem to be having fun in their roles in this. The only issue I had is that this is a fairy tale theme not in the real world yet one of the main characters says "Oh my God" about 24 times in a 3 min span like as typical teenager when she's freaking out over her friend being hurt near the end. I don't know if this was a misstep, clearly the actress was adlibbing and that is what she would have said in real life, but it's kind of hilarious because you're definitely taken out of the storybook fairy tale land here. Not a complaint, it's just really funny when they're literally in medieval fairy gowns and she's like "oh my god, like oh my god, like, oh my god.." had me and my kids cracking up. But yeah, we loved it honestly.

Sophia Anne Caruso as Sophie & Sofia Wylie as Agatha did an excellent job in their roles as they were written.

This film did not lack acting talent. Where it went a miss is either a weakly written two dimensional flat script or bad directing in the ability to visually move a story plot along at the right pace.

The story premise was interesting and the set designs were done with excellent attention to details.(Although a bit of a Harry Potterish look in some places.)

All in all its worth a look. Don't expect a real gold coin and just enjoy the chocolate under the gold foil.

Oh and if you cast Rachel Bloom in something and just have as part of the set it should be considered a crime and you should be punished. This lost you a star off the rating.

Some of these reviews apparently expected this to be a mix of The Godfather and Avengers: Infinity War. Look, it's fine. If you're walking into this looking for some Oscar-worthy performances, you should just turn around. It's a YA interpretation on film. That's it.

There's some cute stuff. Some fun stuff. Some cringe stuff. Which pretty much is everything YA anyway. The biggest fault is the run time. Two and a half hours is a lot to commit to this. But to its credit, it doesn't really drag.

I do agree with one reviewer that it may have been better off as a show than a lengthy movie. But let's just take this for what it is - a studio filler movie for some actors and producers to honor their contracts. Once you get that in your mind, it's easy to enjoy this movie.

I'd give this a 6.5 if it was an option, but it's not, and I'm not going to round up.

After an esteemed user of an esteemed community immediately threw in the towel, I had my doubts about the film. When I saw that the running time was 148 minutes, I was even more skeptical. Would I be able to sit through it? But I got curious and just started the movie, even though I actually wanted to go to bed. Well, what can I say? I easily made it to the end and in the end I didn't even think the movie was that long. Just now, as I was writing these lines here, I read the fresh review from my favorite movie site and was horrified.... by myself. Can it be that I like such a cheesy movie with partly bad effects? Am I abnormal? Even the ratings on IMDB say it's a bad movie. Well, I see it a bit different. But let's start from the beginning.

Yes, "The School for Good and Evil" is tremendously cheesy and full of clichés. Yes, the film is perhaps a touch too unserious. Yes, the film steals mercilessly from well-known films of the genre, especially a lot from Harry Potter. Yes, the supporting characters are superficial and sometimes annoying. Yes, the effects are sometimes bad and cheap. And yet ... I really like the movie. Now I'm sure everyone thinks I'm crazy. First I write how bad everything is and then I say that I like it. But ... why? The answer is short, concise and banal: Emotions and feelings!

Yes, I shouldn't really like the film because of the bad aspects. But who knows me, knows: Emotions and feelings are in films and series for me sometimes the most important. Yes, but where do these emotions come from? Are they hiding between all the kitsch, the stolen and the superficial and the bad effects? The answer is: No. They are not hiding at all. The emotions come straight from the center of the film: the two main actresses and their characters.

Sofia Wylie embodies Agatha, a brash but also deeply human and sympathetic teenage girl. She brings across Agatha's feelings and emotions in such a wonderful way that Agatha immediately grows on me. Cliché or not, I like her a lot and it carries me through half the film.

The same goes for Sophia Anne Caruso, who embodies Sophie. She is a sweet and kind girl who has the courage to stand up for her best friend Agatha and defend her. The friendship between Agatha and Sophie is strong and convincing. Sophie, however, wants to get away from the place where they live. She doesn't feel comfortable there, where everyone else despises her and Agatha and has only scorn and ridicule for them. So she is drawn into the magical world of the school of good and evil. Agatha, however, does not want to lose her and let her go, so she is pulled into this world with her. Agatha ends up in the good school and Sophie in the evil school. The reasons are mystical and fateful. The friendship of both is put to the test and there are forces that manipulate them both without them knowing anything about it.

Agatha and Sophie are the embodiment of beautiful emotions for me. This pulled me in so much that I was rooting for them until the end and even couldn't suppress a tear at the end. Friendship, trust, bonding and commitment to friendship are what it's really all about. The rest of the film is incidental.

The emotional depth of the story is further supported by the beautiful background music, which I really liked.

Aesthetically, I also find the film really successful and beautiful. The scenery is beautiful, I like the setting as well, and the costumes and sets are really great to look at.

All in all, the film was really worth it for me, and I really wouldn't have expected that after FlyingKerbecs' words. Definitely a film I would like to see again. Thus, I give the film a recommendation and award it

8/10 points - Medium rewatch value.

Lifelong friends Agatha (Sofia Wylie) and Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) have been lifelong friends in their village of Gavaldon with Sophie Agatha's only friend due to unfounded rumors of Agatha and her mother being a witch. Sophie dreams of being a princess like in the fairy tale stories she's obsessed with, and after learning of the School for Good and Evil which trains the heroes and villains of the various stories that inspire mankind Sophie wishes to be enrolled in the school. Sophie initially plans to leave Gavaldon due to tensions with her family but is confronted by Agatha who tries to convince her otherwise. The two are pulled into the forest by a specter and taken by a bird to the School for Good and Evil but Agatha is dropped on the "good" side while Sophie is dropped on the "evil" against her protests she's actually good. Agatha reluctantly goes under the tutilidge of the Good school's dean Professor Dovey (Kerry Washington) while Sophie likewise is taught by Lady Lesso (Charlize Theron). Both Agatha and Sophie ask the School Master (Laurence Fishburne) to correct the mistake, but he says it's out of his power and only "true love's kiss" is powerful enough to change anything. Meanwhile, Agatha sees the spectre of the supposedly long dead brother of the School Master, Rafal (Kit Young), who has insidious plans involving Sophie. As Sophie and Agatha work their way through the school, divisions form between them with their mutual affections over Tedros (Jamie Flatters) the son of King Arthur.

The School for Good and Evil is an adaptation of the 2013 fairytale fantasy novel of the same name by author Soman Chainani which became the first in a series of the same name which at the time of this writing now consists of six books forming two trilogies (The School Years and Camelot Years). Plans for a film adaptation of the books began in 2011 a full two years before the first book saw publication but it wasn't until publication of the first book that Joe Roth of Roth Films acquired the film rights with the intention of making the film a tentpole YA fantasy franchise as Roth had experienced success with Snow White and the Huntsman, Oz the Great and Powerful, and especially Maleficent and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland all falling under that same extravagant family orientated fantasy fare that was quite popular in the early 2010s. The film languished in development hell despite Universal Pictures winning an auction for the rights with a seven-figure deal, with the box office underperformance of The Huntsman: Winter's War and Alice Through the Looking Glass also not helping the film's prospects. Eventually the rights landed at Netflix with a new creative team with the streamer interested in investing in new YA IPs to compete against the legacy brands of Wizarding World and Hunger Games. Comedy director Paul Feig was initially hesitant as he had no experience directing big budget fantasy films (Ghostbusters 2016 notwithstanding) but changed his mind after reading the script. Now after a 10+ year journey to watchable product, was it worth the wait? The movie does have the feel of something that should've come out about 10 years ago, but I will say that Paul Feig and David Magee do have fun with the formula.

The School for Good and Evil's biggest battle in terms of winning its audience will undeniably be in the sense of "deja view" as The School for Good and Evil does feel like a remix of various movies you've seen from blockbusters past, down to films like the two Maleficent and Alice films released by Disney that share producer Joe Roth of this film. There's also the more obvious comparison to be made with the Wizarding World/Harry Potter franchise with the setting of a magical school/academy. With that said that doesn't make the film bad, just familiar and the movie does at least seem aware of this aspect so it never takes itself overly seriously and allows for some decent humor in its approach to this well worn material. Much like other modern fantasy films based around fairy tale themes and iconography, The School for Good and Evil is very much a deconstruction of those themes and filters them through the lens of our times by making the story about polarization and "othering" and while that is a well-worn approach, I felt they did enough to make it engaging that I was never bored or thinking the film should "move on".

In terms of the acting, I think the actors do a good job of making the material engaging. Sofia Wylie does quite well in the role of Agatha and she does a good job of endearing us to her as a protagonist especially with her more reserved and down to earth personality contrasted against the extravagance of the Good School which leads to some humorous moments with her annoyance at various facets of the Good School's culture. Sophia Anne Caruso does okay in the role of Sophie but I think there's something about the way this character is written that doesn't make it feel quite as natural a fit as with Sofia and Agatha so I always felt Sophie's characterization was a little "off" in some way, I'm not quite sure how it could've been improved and given the nature of the character it's a challenging role to write and especially act but I don't think it quite sticks the landing in terms of performance. The movie also boasts a solid supporting cast with Laurence Fishburne, Michelle Yeoh, Kerry Washington, and Charlize Theron making up the various staff of the Schools and they're very entertaining in their performances. Kerry Washington in particular has a lot of fun playing a kind of tightly wound Fairy Godmother archetype and while Charlize Theron does recycle a little of her performance as Queen Ravenna from Snow White and the Huntsman, she's still very entertaining playing a character who loves evil and her scenes with Washington show some great comic friction. I also rather enjoyed Earl Cave's performance as Hort, the son of Captain Hook, and his performance and energy reminded me of the late great Rik Mayall. On a visual level the film looks very beautifully and handsomely produced with Academy Award nominated production designer of Gravity and Captain Marvel Andy Nicholson producing some beautifully decorated sets that are lovingly crafted. While the movie uses a ton of CGI as per the standard of this genre, Feig opted to use as much make-up and animatronics as possible so the movie manages to sidestep the "rubbery" sheen look of some of these films fall into. I particularly liked the design of the wolf/human guards who supposedly were (in part anyway) animatronic.

The School for Good and Evil falls in line with similar YA fantasy fare, but it's well made and doesn't play itself too seriously and has fun with its world and performances. It's pretty obvious that Netflix wants this to be a franchise (down to an ending stinger) and given the series of books and production commitment it probably will be. I can't speak to its faithfulness to the source material as I've not read the books, but if you have a soft spot for things like The 10th Kingdom or the Maleficent movies you'll probably enjoy this.