Directed by Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya, and chosen for Suphannahong National Film Awards, this film has garnered some buzz over the media all over Asia. It also stars one of the prominent young actresses Chutimon Cheungcharoensukying as one of the main characters. Now with all of the hype aside, is this film truly as genius as the title says? Read on the Bad Genius film review to find out!
Premise
A group of students organises this mass cheating scheme for various personal reasons with plenty of drama and tense moments. Do not want to give too much away as the actual plot is pretty interesting and you should experience it for yourself given the chance. The trailer does a good job of not giving too much away.
Review
I have to say the plot for this film is rather unique and interesting. Granted this is probably not the first film centered around cheating on tests as its main plot but I cannot for the life of me remember another cheating film in recent memory. It is not just that the plot is interesting, the way certain scenes are dramatized and the pacing of the film make it an entertaining and gripping experience throughout. Certain scenes really amp up the tension, having a very “heist-esque” vibe and even vaguely reminding me of some of the Mission Impossible movies. Of course, I think a lot of Thai dramas do include their signature brand of humor here and there and it once again blends very well here.
The pacing of this film is near perfect and even at 130 minutes, I never felt bored. Granted I have only seen the film once but thinking back, I cannot point out a single scene that felt superfluous. The best thing about this film might just be its script. It does one very key thing well, it shows instead of tells us information, especially about the personalities and morals of our main cast of characters. There were also little details that if you were paying attention, you will notice them paying off later in the film in various ways.
That brings me to another strength of the film, it’s the main cast of characters, the four youths in the movie poster. All of them are very well fleshed out, coming from very different backgrounds, having differing personalities and their own personal motivations of why they decided to engage in this act of cheating. The character arcs of the two main leads, our “bad geniuses”(lol roll credits), are especially well handled and it is a very interesting parallel.
