Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Lynn, a brilliant student, after helping her friends to get the grades they need, develops the idea of starting a much bigger exam-cheating business.
Bad Genius is a remarkably tense Thai thriller that turns high-school exam cheating into a full-blown heist movie with genuine ingenuity. The plotting is intricate and propulsive — the Sydney exam sequence in particular is constructed with the precision and tension of a top-tier heist film. Cinematography is stylish and kinetic, using close-ups of pencils, answer sheets and clocks to generate nail-biting suspense. The film's novelty is very high: it takes a wholly original premise and executes it with a distinctive voice that feels unlike anything else in world cinema. Acting is solid across the board, with the lead delivering a compelling performance, though supporting characters are somewhat underwritten. The ending is satisfying but leans slightly toward convention, pulling back from the moral ambiguity it had carefully built throughout.