It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.

Do you believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?

We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us.

Welcome back to the next picture show, a movie the week podcast devoted to a classic film in the way it shaped our thoughts on a recent release.

I'm Keith Phipps here again with Scott Tobias and Tasha Robinson.

In our last episode, we revisited Alexander Payne's election, a story of corruption and high school politics.

With this episode, we'll be talking about Corey Finley's new bad education, which revisits

a true story of malfeasance and misappropriation in a Long Island high school.

A bit of warning going in, we're going to be getting into spoiler territory fairly quickly

in talking about this movie, but the film itself draws out many of its revelations, so if you

have a chance to watch it first, do that.

Hugh Jackman plays Dr. Frank A. Tassone, a seemingly perfect school superintendent. He never forgets a name,

gives even the smallest problem his full attention, and spends his off hours discussing Dickens and book clubs.

If the term off hours even applies, Frank seems to be fully dedicated to his job, and with

raising the reputation of Rosalind High School, and being a widower, he has nothing but time to

devote to it. He's as successful as he is beloved by students and faculty, particularly his

fellow administrator Pam Gluckin, played by Allison Janney. But when Pam's caught using school

funds for her own purposes, their relationship

quickly unravels. Instead of bailing her out, he calls her a sociopath, a diagnosis she redirects

to him, and maybe with good reason. Frank's not what he seems to be. Or, put more accurately,

he is what he seems to be, but also a lot more. It appears that

only the intrepidate reporting of a high school journalist named Rachel, played by Geraldine

...