The School for Good and Evil
Best friends Sophie and Agatha navigate an enchanted school for young heroes and villains — and find themselves on opposing sides of the battle between good and evil.
- Released:
- Runtime: 120 minutes
- Genre: Action, Comedy, Fantasy
- Stars: Sophia Anne Caruso, Sofia Wylie, Laurence Fishburne, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Flatters, Kit Young, Peter Serafinowicz, Kerry Washington, Charlize Theron, Earl Cave, Rachel Bloom, Mark Heap, Patti LuPone, Freya Parks, Demi Isaac Oviawe, Kaitlyn Akinpelumi, Briony Scarlett, Cate Blanchett, Joelle, Ali Khan, Rob Delaney, Liam Woon, Stephanie Siadatan, Adam Ray, Olivia Booth-Ford, Emma Lau, Chinenye Ezeudu, Harvey Scrimshaw, Misha Butler, John Macdonald, Shanti Deen-Ellis, Ben Aycrigg
- Director: Paul Feig
Comments
- BeiYa_Wang - 24 March 2024
Love it! Colorful and fairytale
Ok first I give a perfect star cuz I love the very fairytale story of friendship. I watch this movie bcs of my cousin's book. My little cousin have book 1&2 of this movie, she let me read those books but I read half of the book 1, bcs I don't understand much when I read it, my imagination will ruin it😅! I know I'm late to give a review since I watched it with my cousin in her PC (ends of 2022) and now it's 2024. Yeah got the right time to give a review even it's late, but not too late hehe.. I don't want anyone to spoil more. So go watch it with your own, don't depend on the reviews, read the description too. - Imme-van-Gorp - 11 October 2023
Good or Evil; what is really the difference?
Wow, this was surprisingly good! I expected a ridiculous fairytale story, but it wasn't. I really liked that they showed how Good as well as Evil have grown into something quite bad; nothing is pure Good, and mostly, nothing is pure Evil either. This movie really took that concept to heart and developed it super well!
Both protagonists were very interesting. Agatha was smart and funny, with low expectations of herself. It was clear that she idolized Sophie (*cough* I still think she's in love with her but whatever *cough*) and always seemed to put herself second to her friend's wants and needs. Sophie on the other hand was a lot more complex; I loved the way they showed her vanity and ego as part of what made her evil, even though it made her exactly the same as all the other (Good) princesses in the school. The only difference was that Sophie suddenly got treated differently from them, and it made her deteriorate fast! All in all, Sophie was definitely the most interesting character here, even though Agatha is obviously by far the better person. - sendanianpaniz - 7 June 2023
A bad representative for the book
As someone who has read the books, I'd say this film is NOT AT ALL a good representative for the books. It was like they wanted to fit the whole books into one movie, in my opinion, if it was a TV series rather than a movie, it could be better. It has no meaning behind it, I mean, yeah, definitely not ALL movies should be as good as Godfather or Interstellar, but come on, it's got to have a point. For me, I couldn't find any meaning or metaphor behind it. One thing that I didn't like in the story, it was: Why did Agatha kiss Sophie when she died?
It was really confusing, I mean are they lovers or friends? What is going on? And, when your best friend is dying, is kissing her really the first thing that comes to one's mind?! And what happened to Agatha's friend? Tedros killed him, but Agatha was, like, ready to totally forgive him! I think it as unacceptable, I MEAN HE'S DEAD WHAT THE HELL?!
The movie had a kind of 19th century princess cartoon vibe for kids, not something that you'd like watching it now when you're a teen/grown up.
If you ask my opinion, I wouldn't recommend it. Instead, I think you'd have a better time reading the books. - goshamorrell - 21 December 2022
Netflix's Best Film in 2022.
This massive, magical adventure is also way too long at 2 ½ hours, but rarely in that running time do we see any glimmers of the kind of singular filmmaking wizardry that usually makes Paul Feig's movies so engaging. He's once again telling a story of female friendship, with all its highs and lows and particular complications, as he has with "Bridesmaids," "The Heat," and "A Simple Favor." And, of course, the clothes are dazzling; the famously sartorial director would never skimp in that department. Based on the best-selling children's book series by Soman Chainani, "The School for Good and Evil" focuses on two extremely different teenage best friends looking out for each other in a harsh, fairy-tale land. The petite Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) is a blonde Cinderella figure with dreams of becoming a princess; she escapes the doldrums of daily life with a mean stepmother by talking to woodland creatures and designing flouncy gowns. The much taller, wild-haired Agatha (Sofia Wylie) lives with her mom in a cottage in the forest, where they concoct potions together; she has a hairless cat named Reaper and dresses in all black, so she must be a witch. These simple, early moments when the girls enjoy their warm, humorous bond-with the help of richly honeyed narration from Cate Blanchett-are the film's strongest. The dialogue in the script from co-writers David Magee and Feig is snarky in a way that's both anachronistic and au courant, but Caruso and Wylie make their friendship feel true. Somewhere beneath all the noise and mayhem-the hurled fireballs, swirls of blood and duels with glowing swords choreographed to Billie Eilish and Britney Spears tunes-"The School for Good and Evil" aims to upend familiar tropes and unearth some useful truths. The popular clique at the good school is packed with mean girls; the weirdoes and misfits at the bad school are actually loyal and kind. Being ambitious isn't necessarily a negative thing, while going along to get along might not be the right path, either. But with a series of endings that drags out the film's already significant length, it takes a while for anyone to achieve any sort of happily ever after. - gypsypunk-46665 - 7 December 2022
Disappointing
Despite an on the surface breaking of conventions, this film still plows squarely into problematic tropes. For example, the 1st sign of ugliness that Sophie gains in her march towards evil is that of a classically Jewish nose. There is no LGBTQIA presence in this fairy tale world. And, even more problematically, hetero normative love is held up as a sign of good, despite Agatha's rejection of it. The emmeshing of the good and evil sides at the end do nothing to solve the problems of this film and is done in a too quick and clunky manner. The problematic aspects of this film overshadows what it could have been. - d_penn - 26 November 2022
N/A
Kept you engaged but had poor story, poor writing, poor acting from Sophia Anne Caruso, good CGI and animation, fairies just disappear from the whole story after the beginning, too many plot holes which made it absolute cringe at times, and other times just had me laughing at how stupid it was. I don't understand the point of hiring just a star-studded adult cast when the main characters were so poorly cast. I appreciate Sofia Wylie's acting but Sophia Anne is just one of those actors like Chloe Grace Moretz who are too focused on looking pretty and not focused enough on their character. I think that's what destroyed Chloe Grace's acting career and I hope the same doesn't happen with her considering she's 21 and still has some time to redeem herself. I had never even heard of the book so I came in as impartial as I could. Costumes needed a bit of finesse. It's like they couldn't get a few steam irons to get the dresses a bit tidied up. The music score was bad as well. Shoving a bunch of pop songs in supposedly interesting scenes is a poor decision and very immature. Having used the word immature, I understand this movie is for children and can be an EXCUSE (not reason) to justify half the things wrong with it but nonetheless, they spent their coin on this so I wish they had spent it better. How disappointing. - cruise01 - 19 November 2022
Fun fantasy film that sparks a new franchise.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
The School for Good and Evil is a pretty fair fantasy film with a plot that is interesting. Great cast ensemble. Entertaining direction. And cheesy script. Based on a series of books. It is one film that is the introduction to the fantasy world. And characters. It has a great cast ensemble. The plot is good. The humor and script is cheesy. The visual effects are colorful and entertaining. Its like a young adult female version of a fantasy Harry Potter series. Characters learning there skills. An evil villain thats in the shadows. Characters forming relationships and friendships. While making enemies. It is one fun fantasy film.
