Bad Genius (2017) **SPOILER ALERT**
Click here if you havenāt seen the trailer yet!
OOOOFFF LET ME TELLY Y'ALL SOMETHING
Watching this film has by far been the most anxious I've ever been over something that's not a horror/thriller movie. It's guaranteed to make you squirm in your seat scene after scene.
Alright, so let's get to the juicy bits shall we? >:D
The movie starts with Lynn, a very exemplary student. Her father wishes to transfer her to a new school for 10th grade. But Lynn didn't like the idea of her father paying so much money for her to go to the new school compared to the school that she was already attending. But after laying out the facts to the headmistress of the school, she got a generous offer to "study for free" and with lunch money as well. All is well for Lynn, she's been a very good student. She knew that she can confidently maintain her scholarship.
She makes her very first friend Grace and unlike her, Grace is a much more inclined in extracurricular activities than in academics. At one point, while they're in the library, Grace tells Lynn about how she wouldn't be able to participate in the school play if her GPA doesn't improve and how her Math scores always drag her GPA down. Naturally, after seeing her friend struggling, she offers to tutor her for the upcoming Math exam.
Now nothing seems to be going wrong so far right? WELLLL here is where it goes down the drain...
By the time the exam day rolls around, Lynn notices that the material to review is exactly the same as the actual exam! Lucky right? Wellll not quite. Despite being EXACTLY THE SAME, Grace is still unable to answer the exam. She already forgot the answers to the reviewer. Now Lynn at the end of it felt really bad for her friend because she wouldn't be able to pursue acting. So what did she do about it? SHE WRITES HER ENTIRE ANSWER SHEET ON HER ERASER, TAKES HER RIGHT SHOE OFF AND DROPS THE ERASER INSIDE. AND THEN PASSES IT TO GRACE.
In all honesty, I have collaboratively cheated with a lot of classmates before. It's not my shining moment I'll tell you that. I do believe that if only they stopped there and let it be a one-time thing they would've gotten away with it just fine. BUT NOPE! Because Grace's boyfriend Pat knew about it and wanted to get in on it too. He offers to pay $95 per subject and it wouldn't just be him, he also has 6 other friends who are guaranteed to be interested. He says that it would be much cheaper to pay her that amount than to get tutors and as for her, she gets to earn $7,440 PER SEMESTER (suddenly we all want to steal her brain LOL) but Lynn wasn't fazed. She pointed out that she doesn't have to worry about saving money because she's already studying for free. But the ice cold truth slithers down her spine as Pat reveals that students in that school don't just pay the tuition fee, they also had to pay the school's "tea money" and apparently the less academically inclined the student, the more they have to pay the school.
She still doesn't give them an absolute answer. But what changes her mind is when she finds out that her father still had to pay the school over $6,000 for "maintenance fees" when the main reason she hesitated to enroll was the expenses that she foresaw.
Long story short she figure out a way to help the students cheat during their exams. And she got paid for "piano lessons" which is basically the sessions they have in order to memorize her way of giving them the answer. Then eventually her friend Grace asks her for a much bigger "favor" with a much bigger payment. But this time, it's not just her, another "genius" joins them. Bank, who's had the highest integrity as a student is helping them to ace the STIC exam. His price? 1,000,000 Baht ($ 31,795)
Lynn was able to convince the most honest student she knows to do this with her and eventually she would feel bad for having corrupted him. But in the end, they go through with it.
Now Iām going to end my synopsis of the movie here and let you know the ending for yourself. But personally, I believe that one of the lessons to take home from this film is that, no matter how deep you are in the mess that youāve gotten yourself into, there will always be a way to turn things around. In the end, everything will still be up to you, you just have to choose to make the right decision.