Put Saiorse Ronan in a movie, and I'm pretty much 100% calling it a must see. Bad Apples was announced as part of TIFF's Special Presentations program without much noise, and with her absence in Toronto I feel like this has gotten little to no buzz so far. That's a shame though, as I found myself having an absolute blast.
Directed by Jonathan Etzler, Bad Apples follows Maria (Ronan), an elementary school teacher struggling with a troublesome student. When said student Danny breaks the arm of a fellow student, Maria tries to speak to his father only to wind up with Danny smashing her car with a crowbar. She tries to stop him leading to him passing out and waking up saying he'll tell everyone she attacked him, leaving her with seemingly no choice but to kidnap him and... help him with his schooling?? It's a wild premise, and amidst a kind of trend of films focused on the tough job of teaching this is a very fresh take on the subject.
Anchoring everything here is the wildly talented Saoirse Ronan. I wouldn't say this is among her best work, but that's only because of how ridiculous her resume is. Here she delivers a character that is clearly doing the wrong thing but doing so because she wants to be the best she can for all the other kids, something she can't manage while dealing with Danny. You watch as she keeps digging herself into a bigger hole but still root for her because of how clear it is that her intentions are pure. It becomes a complicated dynamic though because as the film goes on you care for Danny quite a bit as well. He's played by the young Eddie Waller in his first film role, and while he is frankly a giant pain in the ass, Waller sneaks glimpses of the good side of him that ultimately leads to you empathizing with both characters. The only one you won't empathize with is Pauline, the girl whose arm Danny breaks and who winds up being one of the most frustrating characters I've seen in a movie in some time. The performance from Nia Brown is great and the frustration is by no means a bad thing, she's echoing that same kind of aggravation that Reese Witherspoon brought to Election and she genuinely feels villainous due to how massive of a keener she is. One other cast member I want to shout out is Jacob Anderson. I had no idea he was in this but I'm a huge fan of his music and his time in Game of Thrones, so while he wasn't in the film much he was a welcome addition.
As far as the filmmaking goes I really vibed with the editing here. The tone Etzler crafts is largely in part to the sharp editing from Robert Krantz which allows the film as a whole to offer an almost 50s Hitchcock blend of dark comedy and thrilling tension. It's an exciting watch that will also nail you with some grimly hilarious moments. I did find that they struggled a bit to stick the landing, but the rest of the film hooked me in enough to make up for that. I don't know when this is coming out, and when it does I'm sure it'll alienate some, but this is my kind of movie and I had a great time with it. 3.5/5
Comments
Post a Comment