Cheating may get your foot in the door, but it can only do so much before inevitable exposure. Granted, some schemes are more elaborate than others, and in Chris Wu’s short Bad Genius, the filmmaker has his sights set on the 2019 SAT debacle.
A disastrous car accident sends highly intelligent college student Jackson Hart (Jude Harris) on a long-winding road back to the life he once knew. Coming back to his apartment after spending two grueling months in the ER, his landlady Jessica (Erielle Scott) threatens to evict him, but gives Jackson a deadline to pay up his long overdue rent. In order to get his finances in order, he takes on a rather unusual job from his shady friend Andrew (Bryson Bonta), one that requires his academic brilliance.
Entrance exam fraud went to a whole new level in 2019, when federal investigations uncovered bribery, test sheet tampering, and, perhaps most crucially, certain parents hiring others to pose as their children to take the SAT’s. Wu’s film presents the shocking sequence of events in a simple, toned-down manner. There’s a lot to like about the dreary atmosphere of the short and its twisted ending, but coming in at just under 8 minutes, it can feel a little paint by the numbers with its narrative.
The story’s structure is problematic because it jumps from point A to point B far too quickly. The screenplay deals in almost exclusively broad strokes, with little room for nuance. Characters like Jessica speak and act in an over-the-top manner, with only a few hints of the supposed friendship between her and Jackson visible until the plot demands the revelation of his accident. Likewise, the fallout from Jackson’s crash is mentioned in passing, never tangibly affecting his existence. In a way, this feels like it could lay the groundwork for something bigger and better in the future, where Wu takes a feature-length approach to this troubled genius on the brink, forced into a situation where he has to do something blatantly illegal.
The third act does deserve some praise, as it skillfully messes with audience expectation, giving a fun tongue-in-cheek payoff that ends Bad Genius on a shocking but positive note.
