A few things can be said on behalf of the high-school drama "Bad Genius," a remake of the disarming 2017 Thai blockbuster of the same name. Writer/director J.C Lee notably expands on the original story, concerning a gifted student who helps her preppy friends cheat on their college exams, to better adapt his movie to its new American setting. Some of those changes feel old-fashioned in their depiction and concern for first-generation Americans who feel pressed to provide for their already hard-working immigrant parents. Still, generally speaking, Lee's a good enough filmmaker and dramatist to add essential flavor and context to his update, which also benefits from strong supporting performances and snappy pacing. Fans of the 2017 version of "Bad Genius" may not need a makeover, but it's still both novel and compelling enough to be worthwhile.
The new "Bad Genius" sticks fairly closely to what worked in the last movie, starting with its plot and playful heist-style test scenes. In both movies, a supernaturally bright high school student named Lynn (in this case played by Callina Liang) gets accepted to a high-end private school on a scholarship and almost immediately risks it all to help her new best friend, wannabe actress Grace (Taylor Hickson). As you might have guessed, Lynn's not white or rich like Grace. This immediately puts her at a disadvantage and also leaves her susceptible to the sort of conventional flattery and peer pressure that one might expect from a teen drama about living up to stacked expectations.
Both takes on "Bad Genius" complicate Lynn's quest to not only excel but fit in by juxtaposing her story with that of another scholarship recipient. Bank (Jabari Banks) keeps to himself, but his struggle to support his Nigerian mother and her restaurant, Fufu's Café, becomes more important as Lynn's plot thickens. In the remake, Bank's keenly aware of his token status at school, which gives him an opportunity, at a fundraiser to celebrate both Lynn and his scholarships, to articulate the most cutting line in either movie: "The dinner's to raise money, Lynn. Celebrations aren't for mascots."
That appropriately blunt line does not, however, build towards a more thoughtful or detailed critique of the American school system or the types of people who benefit from its inherent biases. This new "Bad Genius" builds to a different ending, which is ultimately more satisfying than the 2017 movie's conclusion since it better suits a tense crowd-pleaser that, like its predecessor, uses social issues as foundational short-hand for its melodramatic twists and genre movie thrills. So you shouldn't expect to see either Lynn or Bank dig too deeply into their own hyphenated American identities, which are only tentatively distinguished when Lynn says that her "Chinese name" is her "real name," or when he gets called "Kunta Kinte" by a threatening group of African-Americans who smoke and loiter outside Fufu's Cafe.
There's some additional backstory and dialogue to support both Bank and Lynn's respective stories, particularly concerning Lynn's insecure but doting father Meng (Benedict Wong). The big test-taking (and note-passing) scenes still provide the new movie with its strongest selling points, even if they only add more polish to what already stood out in the first "Bad Genius."
The most pleasurable aspects of the new "Bad Genius" are, however, often the easiest to overlook. As the thoughtful schemer Grace, Hickson stands out in a movie where most of the other Caucasian protagonists aren't graced with secondary emotions. Hickson, on the other hand, often shows us her character's thinking and occasionally relishes the process of seeing her bets pay off. Which isn't the same thing as vampishly delighting in wickedness, an easy (and often wrong) choice for immature performers.
Lee also shines brightest in his directorial debut whenever he's focused on letting the characters' warm, but incomplete home lives speak for their alienation. When Lynn and Bank sit down at a booth in Fufu's Café, Lee proves that he knows how to fill the camera frame in ways that surpass the first "Bad Genius." In this interstitial scene, Lee not only shows us the street-side windows over Lynn and Bank's shoulders but also a pedestrian trudging across the way beneath the bright blue sky that frames the diner's interior. The camera's across the room, mind you, so we also see how these two young actors look in relation to both each other and to the Fufu Café.
A few other qualities enhance Lee's "Bad Genius", like Wong's performance as the kind of good dad that makes you want to believe in good dads. But for the most part, the new "Bad Genius" doesn't enhance more than it adds to its source material. It's still a better-than-average redo, if only because it doesn't break what never really needed fixing.
