Alternate Best Actor 2020: Hugh Jackman in Bad Education

Hugh Jackman was nominated for an Emmy for portraying Frank Tassone in Bad Education.

Bad Education is an effectively darkly comic exploration of a pair of embezzlers at the top of a school district. 

I have to admit I've become slightly tired of the wait to the actual academy nomination announcement, something that has never happened before, however this year the wait is extended. So to kind of break the minutia a bit, and open up a new comments section, I thought I'd review one of the saved performances that is a bit of an outlier, and I know will not be nominated however I feel is worth talking about. This is as I have previously highly praised Hugh Jackman for his final turn as the Wolverine in Logan, in a deeply emotional work in his iconic role. That was a progression one could see, however his performance in Bad Education is something very different from him. Jackman is an actor I actually I think tends to be more charming outside of his films at times, with that side of his presence not always well exploited. Now, this performance is not a traditional charming leading turn in the least, however there is an element of that, and it is the element we open with as we meet his Frank Tassone as the superintendent of a highly lauded school district in Long Island. Jackman is wonderful in brandishing his innate charisma here as we see Frank go about his duties as superintendent, meeting with various committees, introducing this or that, and of course dealing with an upset parent. With each Jackman wields the "power" of the position with such an ease and grace. His manner as a man who has it all together, without a hint of worry.

We even see this as Frank entertains a student reporter, Rachel, with questions over the school's proposed sky-walk for the students. Jackman delivers his quick soundbite with a glee for being the man with answers, this going so far as to encourage Rachel to delve deeper. Jackman's manner as he encourages this isn't as though he exactly wants her to do so, rather in that smile we see a man saying exactly what he knows the party he's talking to wants to hear. Jackman showing Frank as the ideal superintendent who seems to just go about it all so easily, perhaps too easily. This as we see his seemingly biggest problem is his low carb diet, as we see in a moment between himself and his assistant superintendent/co-conspirator, Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney). The two are wonderful together as this quietly comedic pair. Their performances share what I think is essential as the two have this kind of shamelessness in their interaction. A shamelessness less as long time friends, but as though the two of them are mutually hiding their own intemperance by sharing it together. The two both showing this pair who seems to have an alarming degree of contentment that just suggests they must be guilty of something when within each other's company. This of course as the two of them have embezzled through construction projects like the sky bridge, however Pam gets caught first. 

Jackman is excellent in presenting the state of the man becoming all the more brazen as he attempts to deal with Pam's known crime as discretely as possible, supposedly to protect the school, but in fact to hide his own indiscretion. Jackman's fantastic as he shows Frank push his persuasive power all the more, this as he emphasizes such a seeming sincerity as he asks the board to think of the children. Jackman losing the levity in Frank's charisma, showing a man who is all business. Jackman creating the wonderful duplicity as he puts on the front of the man taking careful action, while there being that underlying sense of something else going on. This all the more evident when dealing with Pam, with the board around. This in his delivery bringing a proper speech of a man with a calm form trying to take care of business. This while though Jackman's eyes, that can only be seen by Pam, suggest an entirely different story. This as Jackman brings a real sense of threat in his eyes looking at her, now as a criminal firmly wanting his co-conspirator to take the blame, than any sort of proper public official. An even more wonderfully duplicitous moment coming as he addresses Pam's relative trying to blackmail Frank. Jackman's great here, almost treating this as a lesser threat, by maintaining his diplomatic jovial quality as his eyes and his words have a threatening subtext. Jackman again bringing such a quietly insidious quality that is striking and suggests that almost everything about the man just might be a facade. 

This in a sense is in some ways what Jackman's performance should've been more so in his work as Gary Hart in The Front Runner, however that film failed in seemingly having no thematic purpose. The untapped potential within that is realized here in Jackman's portrayal of a man who has been putting on a show for so long he doesn't really even know who he is exactly. We see this as the case as he is the man who talks about his dead wife, which Jackman speaks as though it is part of Frank's introduction, though he is in fact not one but two homosexual relationships. Although I think it is important note these are in themselves not insidious. In fact Jackman is quite good in portraying both as Frank almost being some kind of genuine earnestness in these moments of affection, however even these moments Jackman brings some degree of a guarded quality. This not being as an act of repression of his sexual desires, rather as a man who is still hiding something from both men, that being the relationship with the other man, but also Frank as this ardent liar who loves to live this life of lying. We see then as the evidence closes in on Frank, Jackman's performance is exceptional as he slowly reveals the image the man has created falling apart. When he goes to threaten the very reporter he encourage, suddenly Jackman shows a man struggling not to put on a threat, instead just genuinely threatening the girl, and no longer able to he hides himself with his fancy suits and face lifts. When Frank starts explaining the deficiencies to the board and to the school, Jackman shows now how hollow the man's charisma was all along. This as now the smile fails to be anything less than a mask, and the attempted professional delivery is just a phony display of nothingness. There's a brilliant moment, where the same upset parent comes with her son to try to give something back to Frank. Jackman is amazing in this scene. This with the facade straining within his face as there is nothing but a taut exhaustion flaring behind it. This before he bursts out against the kid and his mother, but what I love is Jackman doesn't play it as a straight anger. This as he rather shows the man trying to wield his his presentation of his himself as this great man while having this breakdown. Jackman is a magnificent mess as he becomes this grotesque state of the man trying to give an inspirational speech while also having a mental breakdown. Jackman beautifully realizing a man folding in on himself as he becomes nothing but lies. This is a brilliant performance by Hugh Jackman that works as a wonderful companion work to his other great performance in Logan. This as a counterpart as instead of a deeply emotional portrayal of a man facing a truth, we get different side of his range in his duplicitous portrayal of a man doing everything to avoid facing any truth.