The School for Good and Evil Parent Guide

Sophie and Agatha (Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie) are best friends trapped in the provincial town of Gavaldon. Blonde-haired and wide-eyed, Sophie is convinced she should be a princess and dreams of Cinderella. But her reality consists of a chaotic home and a thoughtless stepmother. Agatha lives with her mother, an ineffective witch, and is suspected of being a witch herself. She is bullied and persecuted by the townsfolk, with the exception of Sophie, who comes to her defence.

Sick of her narrow life, Sophie makes a desperate wish to attend the rumored School of Good and Evil. Such wishes are powerful, and soon Sophie and an unwilling Agatha are whisked away to the school, located in a fairytale world. It appears, though, that a mistake has been made. Princess-y Sophie winds up in the School for Evil and a very reluctant Agatha finds herself amidst pastel-hued damsels and chivalrous princes. Both girls have new goals: Sophie wants to be reassigned to the School for Good and Agatha wants to go home. To get what she wants, Sophie will have to prove her goodness by receiving true love’s kiss. There’s only one problem – an evil sorcerer (Kit Young) who has marked Sophie as his own….

I suspect most parents will share my concern with one of the plot’s central pillars. The school was created by two brothers to keep good and evil “in balance”. Frankly, I prefer to see evil vanquished rather than kept in some kind of equilibrium. (After all, who honestly believes that Hitler’s Nazi regime should have been kept “in balance”?) This moral equivocation creates a shaky foundation for the film and is its greatest weakness.

On the flip side, The School for Good and Evil does an outstanding job of encouraging viewers to discern good and evil. Is goodness based on appearance and behavioral checklists or does it go deeper, into core moral beliefs and acts? Does goodness win if it hollows itself out to achieve measurable victories? Not only do these questions invite young viewers to evaluate the alignment of their own beliefs and actions, they are key questions in today’s society. The honesty with which this film tackles these questions is the main reason I recommend it for teens. This narrative should help young viewers recognize hypocrisy and engage with their own ethical beliefs on a deeper level, while also driving home messages about honesty, courage, friendship, loyalty, and integrity.

That said, parents should take the PG-13 rating seriously. Despite the occasional moments of levity (Sophie providing a goth fashion makeover for the Evil girls is particularly funny) this is an intensely violent film. There isn’t just a violent final act; the entire movie is filled with scenes of fantastical conflict and mayhem. Characters are stabbed, shot with arrows, tossed around, subject to magical transformations, burned with magical fire, and attacked with “blood magic”. There is plenty of blood, a scene of cold-blooded murder, and a chilling scene where a young man is agonizingly disintegrated by magic. If nothing else, this film clearly depicts the suffering enabled by an environment of moral decay, where “following the rules” and maintaining the status quo is prioritized above doing the right thing or questioning injustice.

The School for Good and Evil is based on the first of a six-book series by Soman Chainani. I haven’t read any of the books, so I can’t say how faithfully the movie brings the novel to life. What I can say is that the movie is a non-stop piece of fantasy action that barely pauses for breath. It sometimes feels a bit plastic but the lead actresses are capable and the moral questions interesting enough that the sequel-baiting at the end didn’t fill me with despair. In fact, I’ll be sure to tune in for the next installment.