Bad Teacher stars Cameron Diaz as Elizabeth Halsey as the titular professional, who had hoped to opt out of working for a living and becoming a trophy wife, but can’t quite stick the landing. She believes that she needs a windfall to seal the deal, but on the journey, she may discover what she really wants.
Comedy lovers will appreciate Bad Teacher as one of the early pioneering movies that let women be as imperfect, shiftless and messy as the guys in a Judd Apatow movie. A lot of filmmakers seem to be scared to depict a woman who is not mature, likeable or positive for fear that she will alienate audiences whereas guys can be permanently stuck in adolescence and never lose the empathy. A common characteristic of movies that try to treat the girls like the guys is that they try to land the same jokes as if they are gender neutral instead of finding the gender normative equivalent of a gross out gag that would appear in a guy’s movie with mixed results. This movie takes the kind of woman that we would normally treat as a villain, a shallow gold digger, and finds a way to credibly change her into a character that we can root for without a complete reversal of who she fundamentally is as a human being.
Movies about immature women who refuse to grow up are usually dramas. Bad Teacher reminded me of Charlize Theron’s Young Adult except without the mental illness. I appreciated that the movie never spelled out her issue. A smart girl who believed in a meritocracy and failed to get rewarded for her hard work could react similarly to Elizabeth who discovers that she is falling short of her goals and believes that instead of a systematic society failure—women are sent conflicting messages of who they should be so she cannot win, she sees it as a physical personal failing without recognizing that she is incompatible with that life. She wants more connection and is incapable of having it with the men that society deems as appropriate, rich men who can support her, because of their social ineptitude. She is like a bored gifted student except she is socially gifted when she wants to be. Diaz really nails the role in its specificity and knowing how to flip the switch between being on and off then when she is actually invested in the world.
I am not arguing that Bad Teacher is a comedic masterpiece. While I definitely thought it was funny and laughed out loud on occasion, there were far more moments when I thought, “That is funny,” instead of actually laughing. I am not a filmmaker or comedian. I have no idea how to make the magic unfold, but I knew that the movie worked because I never stopped rooting for Elizabeth and did not relate to her nemesis at all. The film never betrayed her by seeing things from anything other than her perspective even when the lens through which she saw the world was selfish, manipulative and insensitive. It was a mostly fearless, ferociously unflinching go for the gag film.
I read a review of Bad Teacher which complained that “the casting of the students seems lacking in imagination.” With the benefit of hindsight, the casting is almost embarrassingly superb. Booksmart’s Kaitlyn Dever plays the wannabe teacher’s pet. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Lady Bird’s Kathryn Newton plays the popular girl. I was thrilled that the students played a role proportionate to Elizabeth’s interest in them. I loved that The Office’s Phyllis Smith is part of Elizabeth’s clique. Christopher Guest staple, John Michael Higgins, brilliant plays the principle. Modern Family’s Eric Stonestreet plays her roommate. Jason Segel plays the gym teacher who wants to date her. There is a brief, but brilliant Molly Shannon appearance as a parent. Gilmore Girls’ Rose Abdoo just appears and leaves us wanting more. Jillian Armenante felt underutilized. If I had a complaint about casting, it is a completely biased one that should only be read in Glee’s Sue Sylvester’s voice: Justin Timberlake.
As a lifelong fan of Janet Jackson and Prince, favors Britney Spears and a black woman, Timberlake falls in the category of hate termed “Bitch eating crackers.” He could eat crackers, and I would probably have a problem with the way that he did it. I hate his close cropped, curly hair and his face. I thought that his performance was fine for a Saturday Night Live skit, but did not fit for the movie per se. Lucy Punch occupied the skin of her character, and if asked, would instantaneously know how her character would behave on St. Patrick’s Day during a leap year, and I never felt her subconsciously winking at the audience whereas while Timberlake never visibly broke character, his performance felt like a caricature as opposed to a real human being. He was making fun of a particular type of guy, not identifying with him and making him the hero as if it was his movie, which is the page that the rest of the cast was on. Some of the most hilarious moments are when a random supporting character just hijacks the whole movie and descends into madness and absurdity.
Bad Teacher definitely had some narrative issues. My biggest pet peeve with movies is the need to end with a courtroom scene to righteously side with the protagonist. While this movie resists that hackneyed impulse, the detour that it takes to get there does not quite work. Elizabeth does something objectively shady to give her students an advantage. I would not sacrifice one scene with Thomas Lennon, who singlehandedly got the most LOL moments from me, but we never see whether or not she actually uses this purloined information or how she disseminates it to her students. It felt as if the Hollywood’s Hays Code clutched its pearls, jumped in and forbade the film from showing such naughtiness, which is a weird place to draw the line. It has the effect of leaving ambiguity whether or not Elizabeth and her class acted appropriately or not in a film that leaves far less to the imagination. It is not the only hanging thread but the most glaring. There is also the possibility of embezzlement and what Elizabeth ultimately does with all the money. If you are left with a nagging unsatisfied feeling, it is probably from the subconscious accumulation of these unresolved plot points. I was able to enjoy the movie in spite of it.
Bad Teacher sports hipster racism in which characters deliberately say something that can be interpreted as racist, which makes sense since they are already presented as thoughtless, self-centered people just hoovering up as much goodies for themselves as possible, but the filmmakers expect that the audience will be able to distinguish the characters’ racism from the sensibilities of the filmmakers. I am never going to make a rule about what is permitted to be funny and what is taboo, but hipster racism works best when it is limited to a single character or a type of character, and in this film, it happens with around four characters, three types, which is when it verges on social commentary. It does not age well, and if it does not make the punchline hit harder, then it is an unnecessary, indulgent detraction, which should be avoided.
Apparently CBS tried and failed to make Bad Teacher into a series, which is too bad because I would love to revisit the characters and see how they are doing. It was a fun film, and if you don’t mind your humor littered with nudity, profanity, drug use and sexual situations, you will probably have a good time.
