Bad Apples: When Systemic Failure Descends into Madness (Film review)

Bad Apples’ Maria Spencer (Saoirse Ronan) is a young, idealistic teacher who struggles to do her job against the disruptive and violent influence of pupil Danny (Eddie Waller). When Danny faints after an accidental altercation, Maria takes the boy to her house and hides him in her basement to save herself from his accusations.

What starts as a horrid story of a child abduction becomes much more complex, caustic, and surreal. Maria and Danny are both victims of the same system: one that overworks, exasperates, and blames teachers, and that isolates pupils who require more support. Danny thrives under Maria’s caring captivity, learning how to write and becoming calmer. Paradoxically, Maria’s criminal actions are the first appropriate care the boy has received – his father is loving but too busy to dedicate appropriate time to him. It’s a painful and realistic story of something that will feel very familiar to teachers, who often become punching bags for parental frustration.

The audience is torn between obvious shock at Maria’s imprisonment of a young boy and the stinging feeling that, deep down, you want to side with Maria. She is tired, ignored when asking for help, blamed, and accused of incompetence. Danny is easy to hate: he is violent, loud, and lewd. He isn’t only the bane of Maria’s existence; his classmates also thrive in his absence, and as you watch the movie, you share the impulse of wanting rid of his presence.

Bad Apples is a fascinating movie. Under the skilled direction of Jonatan Etzler, and with cinematography by Nea Asphäll, the film plays with symmetry, colour, and close-ups to deliver the absurdity of the situation. The movie reaches its peak of absurdity in the finale, when all the parents and the new headmaster Sam (Jacob Anderson) are aware of Danny’s captivity but, for the good of the many, decide it’s best to keep him in the basement.

Bad Apples is another reminder of Ronan’s talent and range. She delivers all of Maria’s contrasting emotions: fear, exhaustion, the spiral into a complete breakdown, and the ultimate acceptance of her role as Danny’s captor for the sake of her pupils and her career. It’s a masterful interpretation: the touching moment where she finally manages to get through to Danny easily shifts the audience away from the initial impossibility of condoning her actions. Waller, in his big screen debut, somehow manages to hold his own against Ronan: he is hateful and difficult, but manages that childhood vulnerability and hurt when seemingly nobody cares about you.

Bad Apples feels refreshing: it’s every bit as artistic and weird as you would imagine, and It feels like a formula never explored before, bordering on the absurd and funny. It’s a testimony to the fact that good cinema can still be made when studios abandon remakes and sequels in favour of brand-new ideas and stories, and to the disconnect between what the studios think the audience wants and what the audience actually sits down for.

Bad Apples is in cinemas now