‘Bad Apples’ is a dark comedy that pushes boundaries, featuring Saoirse Ronan as a teacher navigating the chaos of her classroom.
‘Bad Apples’ Review: A Dark Comedy Unveiled
Not knowing a thing about the new film Bad Apples, which is having its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, it took me a while to realize, “Oh wait, this is really a very, very dark comedy.” Once I grasped what director Jonathan Etzler and writer Jess O’Kane were aiming for, I could comfortably embrace a premise that is so out there in terms of credibility, allowing myself to relax and actually laugh at the absurdity.
The Setup: A Teacher’s Struggle
It all starts innocently enough, especially if you’ve seen the number of school-based movies as I have, many of which highlight warlike confrontations between teacher and student(s) (i.e., Blackboard Jungle, Up the Down Staircase, Lean On Me, etc.). Thus, when this well-meaning educator, Marie (Saoirse Ronan), attempts to keep her class engaged while giving a lesson on the deep meaning of lyrics to Ricki Lee Jones’ “On Saturday Afternoons in 1963,” I wasn’t shocked that it failed to hold their attention. But when one of the 10-year-olds in the class, Danny (Eddie Waller), starts disrupting the proceedings, throwing things and creating pure mayhem, I wondered why they didn’t just lock this kid up and throw away the key.
A Dark Turn
When that actually happens later in the film, under hard-to-fathom circumstances, I finally realized this is supposed to be funny, and eventually, it kicks in. Before that pivotal moment, however, Danny goes full terrorist, even attacking and breaking the arm of another student, Pauline (Nia Brown). Nevertheless, good teacher that she is, Marie tries to help Danny, first pleading with his reluctant and absent working single dad Josh (Robert Emms), who is too busy to even hear about it. You just know this is a guy who has brushed off complaints about his son before. Then, during a rainstorm, Marie tries to — figuratively — rope Danny like a wild horse, resulting in a knock-down drag-out fight, and then she impulsively locks him in her basement.
The Consequences
In a sane world, she would have done something about getting him back to his home and alerting the authorities, but this is not what she does. Instead, Danny is a captive in her home for days into weeks. His absence evolves from a missing person to one presumed kidnapped, but no one seems to have a clue. Meanwhile, Marie takes decent care of him as he is held prisoner, even eventually playing his beloved video games and having reasonable conversations. As the weeks go by, passionate school meetings discuss Danny’s disappearance, but she remains silent. Soon, parents are thrilled, as is she, that her class is improving noticeably. Marie realizes Danny was the roadblock, so why give up the goose? She’s now a star teacher! Potential trouble arises when Pauline starts snooping around the house, hears Danny’s voice, and begins to bargain for her silence. Things get complicated – and funnier if you go with it.
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Performances That Shine
Ronan, never known for playing comedy, especially one as dark as this, perfectly underplays her new status, which is why it works. If Marie were over the top, the whole cookie would crumble, but Ronan is too good an actress to let that happen. She is well matched with Waller, who was a real find by casting director Fiona Weir in the north of England and had never acted. He’s a natural, especially as a kid with pent-up frustration with the world around him, needing understanding and compassion but not getting it in a society that just thinks the best thing is to make him go away. Brown as the crafty Pauline is the true scene stealer, negotiating terms of terror herself. The funniest bit was when she forces Marie to let her endlessly sing every verse of her miserable holiday song in front of a parents meeting. LOL.
Conclusion
The Swedish Etzler, a former student academy award winner, lets the dark tone of this all, and especially its absurd nature, shine through right to the pitch-perfect ending. Bad Apples comes from Paramount subsidiary Republic Pictures and is looking for distribution, much like the Oscar-nominated September 5 was last season before Paramount came to their senses and released it themselves after much film festival praise told them what they had. We shall see what happens with the very deserving Bad Apples.
