As
cheating scandals go, this one deserves credit for ambition. Unlike the rather
pathetic Atlanta Pubic School scandal (involving teachers trying to cover up
their sub-par performance), these Thai kids plan to make several million Baht and
secure their futures by studying abroad. Lynn will be the brains of their
operation and perhaps their conscience too in Nattawut Poonpiriya’s Bad Genius (trailer here), the opening film
of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.
Lynn
is a cute genius, but her father is a scrupulously honest school teacher and
her mother pulled a disappearing act. Consequently, they do not have a lot of
money, but her academic achievement earns her a full scholarship to a tony prep
school. However, this is the sort of place where the incidentals can really add
up. To cover those costs, she develops a method to signal multiple choice
answers to her “tutoring” customers. It started with her pretty but ditzy new
friend Grace, but it really starts to reach economies of scale when her well-heeled
boyfriend Pat and his cronies get in on the deal.
Rather
awkwardly, Bank, the school’s other, less socially skilled scholarship student
blunderingly reveals the scam. Despite getting burned, the reluctant Lynn is
convinced to take her game to the next level, targeting the STIC, the
standardized test required for studying abroad in American universities. To
pull it off, she will have to travel to Australia, the first time zone in which
the test is administered—and she will also need Bank’s brain.
Bad Genius is a nifty caper
film, employing elements that are cinematically fresh, but easy for viewers to
relate to. Yet, it is also a surprisingly substantial examination of teen
social peer pressure and societal corruption in general. The third act is
totally serious, but ultimately quite richly satisfying in an unexpected way.
Of
course, it is hard to overstate how terrific Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying is
as Lynn. She is deservedly this year’s recipient of NYAFF’s Screen International
Rising Star Award and in a more just world, you would start seeing her name lit
up on extra-wide marquees. She is a fierce but fragile heroic anti-heroine like
we’ve really never seen before. Likewise, Chanon Santinatornkul takes Bank on a
dramatic but completely believable development arc. Eisaya Hosuwan is
shockingly poignant as the popular but insecure Grace. Yet, it is Thaneth
Warakulnukroh (who can be seen in Pop Aye,
currently in theatrical release), who truly anchors the film and provides its
moral polestar as Lynn’s decent plugger father.
