Here is a film that will hit close to home for those who have stood before a classroom of questioning children, incapable of mustering a single sound other than “please” or “quiet”. For those who have hidden underneath a table after a particularly difficult lesson. For those who have been spoken over by angry parents who do not want to see their children’s faults. And for those who have gone to sleep each night thinking about that child – that one, particular child that makes everything just a little bit worse.
Saoirse Ronan is exquisitely funny as overwhelmed and lonely primary school teacher Maria, who is on the very edge of a breakdown at the hands of a particularly disruptive student. That child is Danny (a brilliant performance from Eddie Waller) who, when we meet him, has just thrown his shoe into a cider mill during a field trip. At the school gates, parents flock to Maria, anguished by the supposed lack of supervision. Her superior (Rakie Ayola), meanwhile, gives her one last chance to get her class under control, apparently oblivious to the boy’s unruliness (or at the very least, is unwilling to see it). After Danny viciously attacks fellow pupil and aspiring teacher’s pet Pauline (a scene-stealing Nia Brown), Maria attempts to take matters into her own hands – resulting in, somehow, locking Danny in her basement.
Based on Rasmus Andersson’s debut novel De Oönskade, the humour in Bad Apples may not be immediately obvious – Maria lives in a dingy flat in a vague location in the UK, a home of missed opportunity that she had planned to do up with her partner, fellow teacher Sam (Jacob Anderson), who incidentally left her for another woman and who now humiliatingly watches her struggle at work. Her life is consumed by her work, and at night she plays video games with glassy eyes, falling asleep to the sounds of a virtual tractor. But with Danny out of sight, Maria experiences something new – a lesson in which she can focus on each of her students, and actually, well, teach. Filmed in a near hallucinogenic dreamscape, the ball drops – this is not a thrilling abduction plot, but an absurdly comical commentary on the level of helplessness experienced by certain teachers. Etzler, mixing devilish Swedish comedy with the dark humour of Britain, almost seems to be daring us to ponder – is this every teacher’s dream? And have children become so naughty that we must chain them up for them to listen? To the fearless beats of Chris Roe’s epic soundtrack, Maria persists, doing what she has always dreamed of – educating the next generation, regardless of whether they are in a classroom or basement. But famously, children have other plans – as the search for Danny continues, Maria is confronted with the very real threat that is Pauline, her wide-eyed, clingy shadow. At a first glance harmless, Brown injects a heavy dose of manipulation and just a hint of evil into this particular teacher’s pet – the Maria-Danny-Pauline trio is truly at the very heart of the comedy in Bad Apples, and Ronan and her younger co-stars bounce off of each other admirably. The former herself is on top form, aptly mixing comedy and vulnerability with just the right amount of insanity – the latter kicks in just as she veers dangerously close to the pathetic, seemingly unable to stand up for herself in the face of parent or child. She teeters the line between a little bit mental and overwhelmed perfectly. As Danny, Waller is much like that other chained up teen in the basement (Tommy in Good Boy, directed by Jan Komasa) – fuelled by uncontrollable rage, with a hefty amount of suffering hiding just underneath. It is within the realms of these absurd new living conditions that his absurd behaviour meets its match. Bad Apples ultimately poses a great deal of questions about juvenile delinquency – how do we take care of those who do not conform? Are they just a rotten core that must be disposed of? Or are there other ways of handling them, as depicted in Tim Mielants’ recent film Steve, starring Cillian Murphy as the headmaster of a school for troubled teens? With three films in October alone exploring this theme, there seems to be no common consensus – yet if Bad Apples shows us anything, it is how far teachers (and parents) are willing to go in the face of this adversity.
