Netflix’s new flick The School For Good and Evil has us talking for all the right reasons. Talking to our kids. Talking to our friends. And talking to our inner selves.
The film, based on the popular book series by Soman Chainani, is a fairy tale flipped on its head — with unexpected twists, extravagant costumes, reinvented fantasy characters and some surprisingly poignant underlying teenage and parenting themes.
The stellar cast includes Charlize Theron (as acid-tongued Lady Lesso who runs the Evil curriculum), Kerry Washington (who plays kind Professor Dovey and runs the Good stream) and Laurence Fishburne (as the Schoolmaster).
But the real stars are Sophia Anne Caruso (Sophie) and Sofia Wylie (Agatha), who play two social misfits and best friends, with an unbreakable bond.
The School For Good and Evil is a great movie to watch with your teen kids. Agatha (Sofia Wylie), left, with Professor Dovey (Kerry Washington), right.
The story unfolds when Sophie, a true believer in fairy tales and all that is ‘good’, gets dropped into the Evil school, while Agatha, with her grim aesthetic and the makings of a real witch, lands in the Good school.
The journey begins as Sophie and Agatha navigate classes with the offspring of Cinderella, King Arthur, and Captain Hook, challenging the essence of good and evil, love, stereotypes, authenticity, and flipping hero and heroine roles on their head in the most entertaining of ways.
Here, five things we learnt while gorging popcorn on our sofas with our kids and enjoying the film…
1. Misfits attract
Agatha (Sofia Wylie), left with Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso).
Friend blends, tribes, cliques… for some people, there’s great comfort in hanging with like-minded mates. Sophie and Agatha, however, show the powerful bond that opposites and individualism can have with their unique friendship that breaks the mould.
Lesson: It’s ok if your friend wears blacks and greys and you were fluoro. It’s ok if one has a grim outlook and the other a more sunny predisposition. And it’s definitely ok if you have very different dreams, goals and aspirations. In fact, Sophie and Agatha show the strength in being so different to each other, because when one is down, the other is there to support.
The importance of friendship… and forgiveness
The unlikely besties.
Friends for a reason, season and life. As teenagers, we’ve all likely experienced these. And those friends for life? They are the ones we should not take for granted. These are the friendships to nurture, invest in and show love and support to when they need us most.
Lesson: In this, Agatha reminds us that our friends are not perfect. They sometimes make evil mistakes. They are sometimes blinded by superficial things, like power and fame. They sometimes say some hurtful things. But if your friend is mostly good, supportive and a ‘friend for life’, learning to forgive, see through their façade stage and sticking by their side through it all is worth the fight.
Self-confidence comes and goes
Sophie starts to question herself, her confidence and the world around her.
We’re not born confident kids, women, mums, friends, colleagues… confidence grows through experience and over time — some days we might feel on top of the world and other days at the bottom of a pit.
Lesson: In The School For Good and Evil, Sophie starts out strong, full of optimism, dreams, drive and confidence, only to have evil subtly chip away at her sense of self, goals and values. A scenario all too familiar for today’s teenagers. As an audience, the power of this narrative will resonate, as Agatha, and her belief and support for Sophie even through those truly evil behaviours, is heart-warming.
Appearances can be misleading
Pretty dresses and sparkly jewellery does not equal good.
In a world of social media where appearances seem to be everything, The School For Good and Evil reveals just how misleading appearances can be. The ‘good’ students might wear decadent ballgowns with tiaras and perfectly styled hair, but their gala doesn’t fool Agatha, as she questions the very foundations the school has been built on and examines actions over fineries.
Lesson: Don’t be fooled by outward appearances and question everything. If you feel like something is ‘off’, don’t be afraid to trust your gut and delve a little deeper.
We all lose our way sometimes
Oh to be perfect. To be good 100 per cent of the time, always smiling, always ‘on’. In this fairy tale, we see both Sophie lose her way and the whole institution of ‘good’ questioned.
Lesson: We all make mistakes, derail, and wonder how we got there. It’s ok. It’s life. You can always get back on track and leave your evil behind you!
Brought to you by Netflix.
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