The School for Good and Evil

An adaptation of Soman Chainani's hit fantasy series has just landed on Netflix. Sofia Wylie as Agatha, Michelle Yeoh as Professor Anemone and Kerry Washington ...

[subscribe now](http://radiotimes.com/magazine-subscription?utm_term=evergreen-article) and get the next 12 issues for only £1. [Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80218885) now. Who will sit on Camelot’s throne and rule the Endless Woods? With the girls apart, Evil has taken over and the villains of the past have come back to turn the world of Good and Evil upside down. A traitor has seized Camelot’s throne, sentencing Tedros, the true king, to death. For her quest, Dean Sophie seeks to mould Evil in her own image. With full-colour illustrations, the handbook includes character interviews, diary excerpts, brand-new short stories and much, much more. But their storybook is about to be rewritten, and this time, theirs isn't the only one. With her glass slippers and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she'll join the ranks of past students like Cinderella, Rapunzel and Snow White at the School for Good. Can Sophie stay good with Tedros on the hunt? "Luckily, we have a brilliant and visionary filmmaker in Paul who knew how to keep the spirit of the book but also make it his own. Every four years, two girls are kidnapped from the village of Gavaldon.

An adaptation of a YA favourite about two opposing fairytale schools is overlong, bland and utterly devoid of magic.

But the deeper purpose here is the straightforward regurgitation of archetypal Potterisms, from the lakeside training sessions to the handsome dining halls to the belief that everyone’s either a friend, rival or crush. Its determination to be like other things leaves the impression of nothing at all. With time and a daunting number of montages scored by such Gen Z-approved artists as Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo, they’ll come to see through the glaringly phony divide laid out for them, mostly by Sophie learning that you can look good and dress in black.

Empty and endless, and too often leaves you wondering what's going on and why we should bother.

And the production design on both sides is enjoyably over-the-top in its contrasting extremes: the School for Good essentially looks like a wedding cake you could live inside, while the School for Evil is like a goth version of Hogwarts. Here, fellow students are whittled down to a single trait, and—as in the Disney “Descendants” movies—most are the offspring of famous cultural figures, like Prince Charming, King Arthur, and the Sheriff of Nottingham. Deauville [Cate Blanchett ](/cast-and-crew/cate-blanchett)as Narrator (voice) But when the bird drops Sophie on the evil side and Agatha on the good side, they figure it must have been a mistake and struggle to switch places. [Soman Chainani](/cast-and-crew/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 much taller, wild-haired Agatha ( [Sofia Wylie](/cast-and-crew/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.

Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, Michelle Yeoh, Sofia Wylie, and Sophia Anne Caruso lead Paul Feig's adaptation of Soman Chainani's boarding-school ...

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 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. 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. But because the lead characters are so multifaceted and their relationship is so compelling, those tropes don’t weigh down the movie. Sophie, meanwhile, is so determined to make something of herself and prove she matters to the world that her ambition clouds her judgment. 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. But much to their dismay, Sophie is tossed into the evil program, while Agatha ends up among the spoiled, glittery princesses of the good one. Designed to fit, then subvert and smash, archetypes, the two leads of The School for Good and Evil and their strong friendship turn the movie from fantastical fun to memorable delight. 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. But while Netflix’s new movie The School for Good and Evil does indulge all those beloved ideas in ways that might seem familiar, Director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) treats the conventions with love and care, turning the movie into a compelling fantasy adventure. Sophie dreams of a life beyond their tiny hometown, but Agatha just wants to keep her mother and Sophie safe. Everyone calls Agatha a witch, because she’s sullen, she wears ragged, dark clothing, and her mother makes herbal remedies on the side.

Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie play outsiders who find themselves enrolled in the titular program, only to discover that the differences between heroism and ...

Neither actress has much chemistry with Flatters, who is meant to act as a comedic riff on the dully brave knight in shining armour — the problem is that Flatters doesn’t bring enough of a sly wink to his character’s musty stereotypes. But Feig doesn’t show much of a knack for action scenes, and the fantasy sequences lack the wide-eyed wonder that would make them special. Meanwhile Agatha, who conveys a witchier personality, is chosen for the School For Good, led by the ebullient Professor Dovey (Washington). Always wanting to be a princess, Sophie is thrilled — until she realises she has been accepted at the School For Evil, run by the nefarious Lady Lesso (Theron). A fantasy film about fairy tales with very little magic of its own, The School For Good And Evil is a laboured adaptation of the Soman Chainani bestseller, its celebration of friendship overshadowed by convoluted plotting and subpar spectacle. Good And Evil arrives on a very limited number of screens and on streaming through Netflix on October 19, and younger audiences may enjoy this Harry Potter-ish adventure — especially girls, who should appreciate director Paul Feig’s attempts to subvert the often patronising attitude toward women espoused in fairy tales.

Paul Feig's fantasy film wants to have its fairytale cake and deconstruct it, too. Michelle Yeoh as Professor Anemone, Charlize Theron as Lady Lesso and Kerry ...

[subscribe now](http://radiotimes.com/magazine-subscription?utm_term=evergreen-article) and get the next 12 issues for only £1. [Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month](https://www.netflix.com/gb/). Could the tale told here be the preamble to a wickeder saga of meta-whimsical magic? The result is a film that wants to have its fairytale cake and deconstruct it, too, which would be fine if the results were more fun or more daring. The production designers do enliven proceedings in some aspects; the 'Groom Room' and other environs flaunt a kitschier front than the Potter saga’s tour of British castles, but the school is an extended Hogwarts otherwise, from forbidden forests to turrets, moats and great halls. Either way, Sophie is streamed into the school for Evil under Lady Lesso (Charlize Theron), while Agatha lands in the Good house under the beneficent watch of Professor Dovey (Kerry Washington). Making heavy weather of introducing the warring brothers – embodiments of good and evil – behind the school, the prologue alone groans with backstory. While Sophie dreams of training as a fairytale princess at the mythical School for Good and Evil, Agatha has the makings of a witch. The teachers appear to have been appointed under JK Rowling’s magic ministrations, too. After a blustery prologue, the story starts modestly enough with the bond between Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) and Agatha (Sofia Wylie), young misfits in the village of Gavaldon. While director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Ghostbusters) seems a good fit for Chainani’s theme of female friendship, the film’s fantasy elements arrive as a gaudy pageant of the over-familiar, made stifling by the sheer weight of world-building involved. Or is it Once Upon a Time and Disney Channel’s Descendants?

Paul Feig waves a very attractive wand at Soman Chainani's book for his take on the fairy tale world.

There’s great balance to the whole piece, but the real heart is firmly focused on the friendship between Sophie and Agatha which is what really pushes this through as a memorable and fun watch. Cate Blanchett is also given a purposeful narrator role that is vital to the story and plays into the fairy tale tweaks that work well overall. There’s also no shortage of big sequences and scenarios thrown at us, from magic trials to two balls in each house so The School for Good and Evil never gets boring. In fact, the strongest moments throughout the movie are the smaller ones between Agatha and Sophie, as well as Evers misfit Gregor (Ally Cubb) and the initially haughty but empathetic Tedros. Clarissa Dovey (Kerry Washington) of the Evers – and the whims of their flighty Schoolmaster (Laurence Fishburne). [Harry Potter ](/movies/franchise/harry-potter)series and the musical book by Winnie Holzman for [Wicked](/movies/wicked), The School for Good and Evil explores the black-and-white notions of good and evil under the roof of a magical school that teaches the next generation of both.

Sophie, with her blonde hair and evil stepmother, dreams of escaping her provincial life to become someone who is destined for more. If this were a Disney ...

As Dean of the School for Evil, Lady Lesso (Charlize Theron), and the Dean for the School of Good, Professor Dovey (Kerry Washington), say, “It’s not who we are, it’s what we do.” Those of us who grew up collecting Disney VHS tapes are now old enough to realise that the world isn’t black and white — nobody is fully good or fully evil. This is reflected in the growing popularity of villain origin stories — like Disney’s live action films Maleficent and Cruella, or even in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The fairy tales that have been packaged and sold as stories about good triumphing over evil, were actually deadly tales of corruption and the lack of compassion. The first break from the expected fairy tale narrative occurs when Sophie and Agatha learn that fairy tales are real and the characters who populate the stories were all educated at the School for Good and Evil (SGE). The violent aspect of these stories is often glossed over in your typical princess movie, but is emphasised in The School for Good and Evil by a series of tragic injustices — RIP Gregor (Ally Cubb) — and culminating in the movie’s big twist, which reveals that the evil sorcerer Rafal (Kit Young) has been pulling the strings all along, writing stories that slowly turn protagonists into villains. The female students at the School for Good are perfectly coiffed and dressed in pastel-coloured gowns. As pointed out by Professor Anemone (Michelle Yeoh), who used to teach Magical History before being demoted to Beautification, the school has become “insufferably shallow,” which feels like a not-so-subtle jab at Disney animated films that taught a generation of viewers that true love is based on beauty (The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Cinderella). At the School for Evil, students are all dark-haired and dressed in black. Instead, The School for Good and Evil goes one step further, not just updating the genre to reflect a modern audience, but also calling out the entire canon of beloved fairy tales as reductive and harmful. Students who fail three courses are transformed into magical creatures against their will and forced to serve the school. The Paul Feig-directed adaptation of Soman Chainani’s novel stars not one, but two strong young women who must survive in a fairytale world, but unlike other recent contributions to the genre, this film isn’t satisfied with giving the female protagonists a feminist makeover and calling it a reinvention.