Saoirse Ronan in 'Bad Apples.' Pulse Films/TIFF Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment A black comedy that's more of a charcoal than a true, pitch-dark Vantablack, Bad Apples stars Saoirse Ronan as an exhausted teacher working in a typically underfunded British elementary school, who resorts to desperate, foolish measures to deal with a difficult student (Eddie Waller, a real discovery in his first-ever role). While Ronan, in fine comic form here, has been acting since she was a kid herself, most of the above-the-line staff are relative newcomers. That includes Swedish sophomore director Jonatan Etzler (One More Time) making his first English-language feature, and screenwriter Jess O'Kane, adapting Swedish novel De Oonsade by Rasmus Lindgren. Related Stories Movies 'Sacrifice' Review: Chris Evans and Anya Taylor-Joy Go on a Confused Cult Quest in Romain Gavras' Ambitious but Erratic Eat-the-Rich Thriller Movies Why Bill Nighy Won't Watch '& Sons' Ahead of Toronto Fest World Premiere Although the relocation of a very Nordic communitarian milieu to a British setting creates its own cultural dissonances, the end result is a nifty ethical puzzle about balancing the needs of individuals versus those of the community. Still, it's best not to take the plot too seriously given the wild implausibilities that come into play in the third act. Bad Apples The Bottom Line Top of its class. Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Special Presentations)Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Eddie Waller, Nia Brown, Jacob Anderson, Rakie Ayola, Robert Emms, and Sean GilderDirector: Jonatan EtzlerScreenwriter: Jess O'Kane based on a story by Etzler and O'Kane and the novel 'De Oonsade' by Rasmus Lindgren 1 hour 40 minutes Ronan's Maria, whose soft Irish accent marks her as a bit of an outsider already, teaches 10-year-old kids at Ashton Brook Primary, an unremarkable elementary school in an unnamed Somerset town in southwestern England. As the film starts, Maria is first met supervising a class trip to the local cider factory owned by local burgher Frank (Sean Gilder), whose daughter Pauline (Nia Brown) is in Maria's class. But as Frank holds forth about cider production, we can see someone has dropped a hi-top sneaker in among the apples working their way through the production line. Given surly loner Danny (Waller) is wearing only one shoe, it's pretty obvious who the culprit is, but he runs off when Maria tries to chase him down. Later, back at school, Maria remonstrates with Sylvia (Rakie Ayola), the school's headteacher (the equivalent of a principal), that she needs help dealing with Danny. But Sylvia insists there's no budget for a classroom assistant and that it's Maria's job anyway to handle disruptive behavior and control her class. In class, Danny continues to be disorderly, challenging Maria's authority, throwing stuff when angry, completely distracting and even frightening the other students. Finally, when he pushes Pauline over a stair banister, breaking her arm, Sylvia finally suspends Danny from class. Unfortunately, he can't be prevented from coming back to school if Maria can't communicate the situation to Danny's single father Josh (Robert Emms), a delivery driver constantly at work and seemingly fed up with his son getting into trouble. At the depot out of which Josh works, he drives off before Maria can even tell him about the suspension. When she turns around and finds Danny vandalizing her car, Maria tries to pin him down to control him, although the stress position she ends up holding the kid in looks suspiciously like the posture Derek Chauvin held George Floyd in, with lethal consequences. Danny passes out, but luckily doesn't die. Even so, when he comes to as Maria is just pulling into a hospital, his first words promise that he will tell the police what she did, guaranteeing she will get in trouble and probably lose her job. Suddenly panicked, Maria turns the car around and heads back to her boxy, modernist house with Danny and locks him in her basement. So far, all that is almost all moderately credible, although as a parent and a former school governor myself, I can attest that most schools and local authorities would more likely put the blame on Sylvia the headteacher for this situation. In the real world, she would, or should, be trying to get Danny transferred to a school that could meet his needs or even seeing if the child could be taken into care, instead of putting the onus on hapless Maria. But Bad Apples is clearly not really interested in pedagogic realism. Instead, it starts out as a faint satire on the perils of permissive, child-focused education before making some even stranger, darker turns as the situation evolves. It would be a shame to spoil the unexpected detours the script makes. So let's just stay that the middle act