25/25
SEPTA operates in the Philadelphia metropolitan area
A group of enterprising high school students band together to overthrow a rigged college admissions system. A remake of the Thai film Bad Genius (2017). The film opens with a scene where Lynn calculates the cost of a trip to the private school she attended. The film shows a stack of public transportation tickets clearly marked with the SEPTA logo, which stands for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.
Lynn (Callina Liang) is a bright student with no family money
Half a minute later, the film identifies the city where Lynn and her father live as Seattle. Literature Roots (1977). Her widowed father Meng (Benedict Wong) works tirelessly at his laundromat. He receives a scholarship to a prestigious high school in Seattle.
They hire her to give them the answers
She befriends a rich girl, Grace (Taylor Hickson), who gradually draws her into the rich kids’ world. Banks (Jabari Banks) is another smart student in their class. Apparently, it’s an adaptation of a Thai movie I haven’t seen. All I know is that this movie is supposed to replace Lina.
The first thirty minutes are very standard and pretty boring
I get the idea of a poor innocent Chinese girl who gets seduced by a bunch of rich white kids. It would have been more fun if she started the movie by doing some kind of scheme to make money. I’d even accept a story where she reads the people around her. She needs to be emotionally intelligent, like she is later in the movie.
It’s completely uninspired
It takes a long time to get into anything interesting. At times I thought Banks should be the main character, but really it should be Lina… with a twist.
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