Jan 25, 2026 1:00pm PT ‘The Musical’ Review: A Middle-School Drama Teacher Certainly Brings the Drama in an Off-Kilter Comedy Uneven but often hilarious, Giselle Bonilla's debut follows a nebbishy educator as he turns a wholesome production of 'West Side Story' into an act of collegial sabotage. By Guy Lodge Plus Icon Guy Lodge Film Critic @guylodge Latest ‘Zi’ Review: Kogonada Changes Course for a Small, Slight, Beautiful Journey 12 hours ago ‘One in a Million’ Review: A Poignant, Decade-Spanning Portrait of a Syrian Refugee Caught Between Two Ideas of Home 1 day ago ‘Lady’ Review: The Vibrant Street Life of Lagos Energizes a Rough-Edged Character Study 2 days ago See All Tu Do For those of us who saw it when we were still in school ourselves, Alexander Payne’s “Election” was a startling work, and even a perspective-shifting one — a snarlingly funny introduction to the idea that our least favorite teachers might just hate their job as much as we hated their doing it. Making a similar point with similar venom is tyro director Giselle Bonilla‘s unapologetically jaundiced black comedy “The Musical,” though in this case, ambitious students aren’t the enemy.
