Bad Apples

Landing on the Mayhem Channel

Flipping channels on Pikashow, you might land on Bad Apples and, in the first 10 minutes, immediately wonder if you’ve landed on a hidden camera show. The plot quickly develops around Maria (Saoirse Ronan), a primary school teacher, dealing with Danny (Eddie Waller), a student, who engages in highly disturbing, profane and violent behavior. This behavior is extreme to the point it’s hard to fathom how the teachers are allowed to deal with it. The movie takes no time setting up this major conflict and you quickly realize this isn’t your typical teacher drama. In this first part, the film makers accomplish a couple things. First and foremost, they capture and establish the main conflict and leave you wondering how did they allow this to go on. They capture Ronan, and Maria, with a look of astonishment, quickly escalating to concern for the student’s well being. Maria becomes increasingly frustrated as school policies and procedures seemingly offer no help. The answers Maria needs appear to be completely out of her control. This part of the movie makes you very uncomfortable and you almost feel the need to look away from the disturbing images, similar to the morbid curiosity people feel when they look at a traumatic accident on the side of the road. Bad Apples immediately grabs your attention, demands it and doesn’t provide much relief. The humor that’s laced throughout the first episode isn’t overt, but gives a sense of relief when the teachers realize there’s absolutely nothing they can do. All in all, the first episode of Bad Apples is engaging and interesting, capturing the struggle many teachers face dealing with unruly students.

Holding the Signal: Dark Humor and Discomfort in HD

“Bad Apples” embodies two contrasting genres seamlessly. Once it has your attention, it's not easy to break away. The HD presentation beautifully captures the dreary, drab and sad reality of the school setting to help ground the increasingly absurd things that happen in the film. The sound design in the film helps make the classroom a chaotic and noisy place, and, in one particular scene, combine that with an ominous and foreboding silence to leave the audience with Maria to face the consequences of her drastic actions. Jonatan Etzler demonstrates an adept sense of pace and timing to build and let off some steam with the mounting and palpable tension to help give way to the occasionally very dark, humor, which gives way to a cascade of audience gasps and winces before they can register a chuckle. Saoirse Ronan commands the screen in every scene that she is in and expertly shows Maria’s slow and gradual descent into a morally questionable person and character. Ultimately, Etzler creates a tense and gripping school drama that serves as a cautionary tale of becoming a victim of your own drastic actions.

Eddie Waller, as the ‘bad apple,’ is convincing in a disturbing way. Pauline is played by Nia Brown, who also deserves credit for surprise performance. She adds to the complexity of the classroom dynamics. Other critics have commented on this film’s ability to show a community turning a blind eye to a perceived external threat as a way to protect social cohesion and avoid inner contradictions. This is a strong theme and makes the movie more than a witty dark comedy.

Other commenters have mentioned “Bad Apples” seems to turn “pointed social criticism” into a “joke.” This is quite subjective and while there is some silly, almost slapstick, funny stuff in there, there are many serious themes such as: persistence, racism, white supremacy, self delusion, conformity, fear of inner contradictions, dealing with hypocritical behavior of oneself and others and the price of social cohesion. For these reasons, the drama is grounded enough to support the hilarious, almost “silly” elements of the movie. Bottom line, and as many have said, watching this is a journey, and you should come up with your own interpretations. It is good stuff.

The Flip Test: Live Cricket vs. Classroom Chaos

So, will Bad Apples pass the ultimate flip test against live cricket or any other distraction on Pikashow? Yes, it will. The reason is that it is a smart combination of comedy and thriller with some very good performances and an edgy premise. Of course, a nail-biting cricket match provides immediate thrills. But what type of thrill does Bad Apples provide? The answer is not what type of thrill, but what type of suspense. It is psychological suspense. The focus is not on who wins the game. It is more on what ends and means would people use to protect their social mask, to showcase to the world that everything is ok, and normal in their lives? Unlike other serial killer flicks where people are trying to find the connection between seemingly unrelated crimes to find the perpetrator and the motive, Bad Apples focus is on how does a civilized community deals with events that are beyond comprehension? The film does not provide us any easy answers to these questions. In fact, they are very challenging and thought provoking. Some of the adult side characters are less believable and the "bad apples" metaphor feels overdone, but these are minor quibbles. For the people who want to see something beyond the obvious and the predictable, this is a must watch.