Imagine never wanting to see your family again so much you’d welcome a demon kidnapping you off to a magical school. They’d have to be pretty damn awful people for a long time right?
In Paul Feig’s spectacularly whimsical adaptation of Soman Chainani’s beloved YA fantasy series, The School for Good and Evil, those are the circumstances faced by Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso), the seemingly Cinderella half of the core friendship of the narrative. While her friend Agatha (Sofia Wylie) faces abuse and persecution from the community, Sophie deals with it in her own home like the heroine of the European folk tale.
And it’s here that one of the highest billed (and personally, highest anticipated) names dwells as Sophie’s evil stepmother: Folks, it’s Rachel Bloom. The co-creator of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and musical theatre comedy monarch of our hearts, Bloom stars as Honora, Stefan’s partner and technically Sophie’s stepmother.
But the trouble is, she gets like, five lines. And they’re great, involving yelling at Sophie to « get your candied ass out of bed, now! » and not spend an hour on her hair, then lambasting Sophie over « wasting » a tomato that her stepbrothers Jacob and Adam have pelted her with. « It was supposed to go in the stew! » Diabolical! Hilarious! We do get another glimpse of Honora at the end of the film, giving Sophie a massive hug in welcoming her home, but that’s about it. Bibbidi bobbidi boooooo. Look, I’m guessing Bloom was busy hitting it out of the park with the most excellent Reboot, so this was all the time that might have been available. But I would have absolutely loved to see her given the opportunity to do some real comedic damage destroying the perennial wicked stepmother trope: Think Christine Baranski’s brutal Into the Woods energy meets Olivia Colman’s passive aggression in Fleabag meets Elaine Hendrix’s ice-cold vindictiveness in The Parent Trap meets the unblinking terror of Cate Blanchett in Disney’s live action Cinderella. Better yet, give me a Honora spin-off!
While yes, the film’s focus is justifiably on Sophie and Agatha’s complicated friendship journey, the cast is as stacked with incredible grown-up stars as a Harry Potter film, with the School of Good run by Professor Dovey (Kerry Washington) while Lady Lesso (Charlize Theron) runs the School of Evil. (Both give characteristically superb performances.) The legendary Patti Lupone shows up as bookseller Mrs. Deauville, but this cameo is also criminally short. Laurence Fishburne plays a major role as the Schoolmaster, literally bridging the gap between the two polarized education institutions. And Michelle Yeoh eventually steals back her thunder as Professor Anemone, who internally despises teaching princesses to smile. There’s Cate Blanchett as the voice of the Storian, recording it all in a giant book, and Mark Heap as the sniveling potions master Professor Manley. But if you have Rachel Bloom in the cast too, wow, use her talents!
Perhaps if Netflix announces a sequel (and from where the film leaves off, it’s a certainty), there might be more time to delve into Honora’s story, which actually has more nuance than the wicked stepmother archetype. In Chainani’s narrative, Honora and her best friend, Vanessa, have affections for the same guy, Stefan, who has eyes for Honora. Vanessa (allegedly) procures a potion to bewitch Stefan and marry him. Both Honora and Stefan end up in loveless marriages, but meet in secret once Honora has forgiven him for running off with her best friend. Honora has two sons, Jacob and Adam, during this time, and Vanessa eventually gives birth to Sophie. Then, Vanessa dies, as does Honora’s husband, after which Honora and Stefan finally get together for real without marrying, and all their kids live together — though Stefan and Honora’s treatment of Sophie is pretty awful — enough to make Sophie wish herself out of there. But Honora and Stefan and the village of Galvadon have a bigger role to play in future narratives in the School for Good and Evil series, especially concerning our two protagonists Sophie and Agatha, so fingers crossed for Bloom to get more screen time.
Apart from this one tiny ask we have, The School for Good and Evil is an empowering, magical, incredibly-costumed Gothic fantasy likely to delight fans and hook newcomers to the series. But more Bloom please! All together now:
