School for Good and Evil review: Netflix does Harry Potter for fairy tales

Before Harry Potter novels, the magic school idea was an established trope. Populating one of those schools with fairy-tale characters is also a popular trope, most recently seen in Disney’s Descendants movies. But Netflix’s new movie The School for Good and Evil Paul Feig (Director), does indeed indulge all of those loved ideas in ways which might be familiar.BridalmaidsIt treats these conventions with care and love, making the film a captivating fantasy adventure.

Based on the first installment of Soman Chainani’s popular book series, Feig’s Education for Good and EvilIt embraces all the fantasy and morality behind fairy tales, while questioning the system. Feig co-wrote this script along with David MageeMary Poppins ReturnsThe upcoming live action Little MermaidThis creates an amazing world filled with cool details and gorgeous visuals. But most important, it features two captivating characters, their complex yet close friendship. Two archetypes are reinterpreted and mashed by the leads. The School for Good and Evil The movie is a wonderful, memorable experience thanks to their friendship.

[Ed. note: This review contains some setup spoilers for The School for Good and Evil.]

Gilles Mingasson/Netflix Photo

Both fashionable Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso), and the sulky Agatha, (Sofia Wylie), are outcasts from their tiny village. Everyone calls Agatha a witch, because she’s sullen, she wears ragged, dark clothing, and her mother makes herbal remedies on the side. Sophie, meanwhile, comes from a humble background but does her best not to seem more important and glamorous than she can.

They’ve bonded over their shared misery, even though on the outside, disheveled Agatha and style-conscious Sophie couldn’t be more different. Sophie longs for a better life, while Agatha wants Sophie and her mother to be safe. Then they’re both whisked away by a giant skeletal eagle to the mysterious School for Good and Evil — an academy that trains prospective fairy-tale figures that go on to star in the popular stories humans look to for moral guidance.

To their surprise, Sophie ends up in the evil program while Agatha is among the spoilt, glamorous princesses at the good school. Sophie insists that she belongs in the good school, while Agatha doesn’t want princess lessons; she just wants to go back home to her mother. After talking to the school’s headmaster (Laurence Fishburne), they learn that if Sophie can get a True Love’s Kiss, they’ll be able to prove she’s good, and she can switch programs. At first, Agatha is a little hesitant for them to both stay at the school — especially after seeing a creepy figure made of blood whispering about Sophie’s destiny — but she agrees because this is her friend’s one chance to make something of herself.

Photo: Helen Sloan/Netflix

The School for Good and EvilFeig is a masterful caster who embodies the magic-school atmosphere. For starters, the movie is visually delightful and over-the-top in a way that’s strongly suited to the fairy-tale world. In a black, tailored suit, Lady Lesso, a cutthroat lady, leads the school of evil. Nevers are the evil students. They wear dark, rough clothing and use dark makeup. Bubblegum Professor Dovey (Kerry Washington) is in charge of the good program. The furniture on the good track is all glitzy gold, and the girls’ school uniform appears to be exaggerated ball gowns, while the boys wear princely tunics.

Beyond the fun visuals, though, it’s compelling to see what sorts of familiar folklore characters end up in the school (the children of the Sheriff of Nottingham and King Arthur, for instance) and what sorts of things they learn. Although the movie runs for 147 minutes, it is filled with interesting detail and characters so that it never feels rushed. Every minute is an expansion on the school’s world. Each one reveals more details about its operation. For instance, while the good-program princesses take lessons in smiling (which Agatha miserably fails), the bad school has an “uglification” class — because of course ugly is “evil,” in fairy-tale logic.

Photo: Helen Sloan/Netflix

This story deliberately blurs the line between evil and good stereotypes. To make it more interesting, the characters are allowed to poke holes in these superficial moral delineations. Fairy tales do tend to boil down to black-and-white thinking, and the main characters — who live in a more nuanced world, but are expected to take on fantasy roles — recognize that there’s something off about that.

Admittedly, some of that nuance is lost when characters become “ugly” as they become more evil. Movies like Descendants have a theme about characters who defy their destiny. ShrekThe zeitgeist has been put into it. But because the lead characters are so multifaceted and their relationship is so compelling, those tropes don’t weigh down the movie.

All characters and all relationships are not created equally. One of the movie’s least interesting parts comes in the form of King Arthur’s son Tedros (Jamie Flatters), who Sophie believes might provide her True Love’s Kiss. He has some flirtatious tension with both of the girls, but unfortunately he’s a little bland, a simplistic dreamboat who won’t stop talking to Agatha even though she’s made it clear she’s not interested in him.

Photo: Helen Sloan/Netflix

He does get a tiny bit of character growth and depth, but any interesting notes about him are dull compared to literally every other character: twerpy Prince Gregor (Ally Cubb), who dreams of opening a grocery store; chaotic witch Hester (Freya Theodora Parks), who harnesses a fiery bird demon from a tattoo on her back; elegant Professor Anemone (Michelle Yeoh), who’s stuck teaching beauty when she wants to teach magical history; and most of all, the leads.

Sophie and Agatha both make great characters. Agatha is prickly, rude, and defiant, but she’s also one of the few students in the good school who actually cares about other people. Sophie is determined to be a better person and make a difference in the world. Wylie and Caruso give these characters mature and complex performances that balance out both their strengths and weaknesses. Watching both of them evolve into the “good” and “evil” labels they resisted is satisfying, and watching their relationship grow and change is even more compelling. It’s rare for a high-fantasy story centered on the bond between two girls to get a big-budget movie — and it’s rarer to see such a movie done with such gorgeous visuals and engrossing characters.

The School for Good and EvilIt is a fairytale for anyone who loves fairy tales and wants to see them dissected, weighed and balanced. It’s a fairy tale where the witchy outcast girl can be a hero, and the girl who wants to be a princess falls in love with her inner dark side. It’s a fairy tale for those who know that one of the most powerful and most underrated forms of true love is the friendship between two teenage girls. Every minute of it is an adventure for anyone who used to write intoxicating stories about witches or princesses on the margins their middle school notes.

The School for Good and EvilAvailable on Netflix Now