Mini Film Review – Bad Apples

I have just seen Bad Apples; and it was really good! Directed by Jonatan Etzler, and starring Saoirse Ronan, Eddie Waller, and Nia Brown, and based on the novel De Oönskade by Rasmus Andersson; Bad Apples is a dark comedy thriller, about a teacher struggling to control a severely unruly child, and in a blind moment of panic, locks him up in her basement! The setup for this film, does remind me of my own school years, and the high volume of unruly children I unfortunately had in almost every class. It was nothing like those Get Into Teaching adverts, where the children are so well behaved, no, my school days were a lot more like this film. So it’s actually a very realistic portrayal of schools in the UK. Bad Apples sets itself up really well, getting stuck into the narrative, of a teacher taking the blame from staff and parents, for being unable to control a very difficult child. The lead-up to the founding of the story ahead, is also well played out, as it starts with an accident, of someone trying to help, but then get threatened by the person they’re trying to help, so go to extreme measures to survive. You then get this interesting tale, of how things start to improve, after the kid gets locked up, and how the teacher uses that improvement as a coping method. But it’s not just one evil child in this film, as there is another. This then all leads up to a Wicker Man like ending, where the villagers at a school meeting (which is not too disimillar to the town hall scenes from episodes of The Simpsons), upon learning the truth, consider what the best outcome would be, and whether or not doing the right thing, is in the best interest of the common good?! The ending is deeply haunting in a way, as you see people, in a village riot like atmosphere, trying to come to the correct conclusion for everyone, whilst holding people back, to prevent them from discussing it further with the outside world. Bad Apples was a really captivating experience, which just got more and more compelling as time went on!