A struggling primary school teacher begins to make some questionable decisions after one of her students is injured.
‘Bad Apples’ is a satirical black comedy about a stressed primary school teacher who gets herself into an increasingly messy situation after accidentally (if that’s possible!) kidnapping one of her most troublesome pupils. It’s an extremely dark premise, but the filmmakers mostly manage to play it for laughs, using the increasingly outlandish situation to take aim at the education system and pretty much everyone involved in it, from teachers and parents to the children themselves.
It is also, fundamentally, quite stupid, and you need to get past that if you’re going to enjoy it. Virtually every decision made by the characters is either unbelievable or makes their situation considerably worse, but that increasingly feels like a necessity for the plot to keep moving and the comedy to work. There’s a real cynicism to how the film views the education system, with seemingly nobody emerging particularly well, and its willingness to keep pushing an already dark situation into increasingly absurd territory provides some of its funniest moments.
What holds it all together is Saoirse Ronan, who commits fully to a character making one terrible decision after another while somehow keeping her sympathetic enough that you remain invested in what happens to her. There are also a couple of very good performances from the younger cast and some fun supporting turns, including Sean Gilder. ‘Bad Apples’ is ridiculous, cynical and often completely unbelievable, but once I accepted the logic of the film on its own terms, I found there was plenty to enjoy.
Rating: 3/5
Directed By: Jonatan Etzler
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Eddie Waller, Nia Brown, Jacob Anderson, Rakie Ayola, Robert Emms, Sean Gilder and Kerry Howard
