The School for Good and Evil ★★★
(M) 147 minutes
It might seem that the moment for Harry Potter parodies has come and gone, but The School For Good and Evil, based on the first in a series of young-adult bestsellers, has a solid comic premise. What if you were whisked away to the magical academy of your dreams, and it turned out to be just regular high school with better architecture?
Charlize Theron strikes lordly poses in elegant double-breasted jackets in The School for Good and Evil.Credit:Helen Sloan/Netflix
Beneath the fantasy trappings, this is something of a return to origin for director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids), who rose to fame chronicling tensions between youth subcultures in the beloved TV series Freaks and Geeks. At the school envisaged here, pupils are labelled either good or evil – never both – but the distinction often seems like a matter of fashion sense more than anything else.
Of course, not everyone fits neatly into their assigned mould. Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) yearns to be a fairy-tale princess but is put in the villain stream, while it’s the opposite dilemma for her bestie Agatha (Sofia Wylie).