WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON BAD APPLES?
They say that children are the future, but that doesn’t account for the handful of tykes whose futures are looking dimmer by the day and, as horrible as it may sound, might not even be worth nurturing at all. Jonatan Etzler and Jess O’Kane, the respective director and writer of Bad Apples (the latter adapting Swedish author Rasmus Lindgren’s novel The Unwanted), exaggerate this concept with a firm emphasis on the grim reality that every now and then you’ll get a kid so rotten that his forced removal may actually be the answer to a wide array of problems, even if it creates a whole bunch more consequences in the process.
In exploring that notion with oodles of pitch-black comedy at its disposal, the filmmakers have essentially made the Dr. Strangelove of school-set satires, one where you’ll be shocked – yet thoroughly entertained – by how far they’re willing to stretch their concept.
The kid in this scenario who’s causing as much trouble as he breathes is Danny (Eddie Waller), a young ne’er-do-well whose volatile and disruptive behaviour keeps the remaining class of put-upon teacher Maria Spencer (Saoirse Ronan) from progressing with their education. Naturally, the lion’s share of the blame falls on Maria herself, with frustrated parents and even the headmistress Sylvia (Rakie Ayola) and her deputy – who’s also Maria’s ex – Sam (Jacob Anderson) telling her to step up her game, or it’s curtains. But during a heated confrontation with her unruly student, Maria winds up abducting Danny and holding him prisoner in her basement, his endless screams drowned out by the conveniently soundproof glass doors and windows of her fixer-upper home.
This would be the point where a search would get underway for the missing child, but where Bad Apples strays from convention is how, aside from Danny’s understandably concerned father Josh (Robert Emms), nobody actually cares that this kid is gone. In fact, it’s probably the best thing that could have happened to everyone, for not only does Maria’s class begin to thrive in their fellow classmate’s absence, but an impromptu Ofsted inspection gives the school commendatory feedback and finally sets the establishment on a path towards greatness. Even Danny, strapped to a chain and harness in Maria’s basement, is doing well as she gives him private tutoring sessions and, in a revelation only ever hinted at but nonetheless apparent, more attention than his overworked father possibly ever gave him.
It’s a situation where you know deep down that this is an extremely twisted situation, yet the film does a good job of making you feel how much better off everyone is thanks to this criminal act. From the moment we first meet Danny, who’s causing havoc during a class trip to the local cider mill, it’s immediately apparent that he’s a little demon who single-handedly makes the likes of Bart Simpson and Damien from The Omen both look like Anne of Green Gables. All with the sadistic gaze of a future serial killer (brilliantly played by young Waller, by the way), he swears and picks fights in the classroom, throws kids’ backpacks onto the roof after school, and even pushes a girl down a flight of stairs when she tries to befriend him. It’s no small wonder why anyone, adult or child, would be glad to wipe their hands clean of this miniature nightmare, and what Etzler and O’Kane capture so well is the hopelessness whenever this kid is present, making later scenes where he’s no longer in the picture feel like cathartic releases of joy and bliss… until you’re reminded of the fact that there’s a child locked up in someone’s basement.
Swedish director Etzler, making his English-language debut, brings an identifiably Scandinavian dryness to the humour in O’Kane’s script that revels in nasty and even uncomfortable behaviour, not so much from Ronan’s Maria (which is saying something, given she’s the criminal in this scenario) but from others who themselves may turn out to be more sinister than her volatile captee. One character, initially introduced as a Lisa Simpson-esque teacher’s pet, turns out to have a sadistic streak of her own, albeit a less violent one than Danny’s but no less concerning, especially for a girl of her age. Later on, you’ll have whole groups of people debating a disturbing issue that in any other reality would not even call for a debate, and all the while Maria – whom Ronan pumps with so much worn-down likeability that you too will be vaguely rooting for her to get away with it – is wrestling with the notion that she’s effectively giving up her integrity (not to mention her potential freedom) in the name of her children’s wellbeing and education.
It succeeds at being darkly funny and also at being quite tense, particularly as Chris Roe’s score heightens the mood during a few key scenes, and while it starts to lose a bit of its steam towards the end, with the somewhat ambiguous conclusion hinting at further disruption down the line, Bad Apples manages to hold steady with its fun approach to an uncomfortable range of satirical topics. The film is a good bit of entertainment, which is perhaps the most shocking thing about it since it is, again, effectively calling into question whether certain children can and should be put forward as examples of what tomorrow can bring.
