Bad Apples

"Did you always want to become a teacher?" A teacher (Saoirse Ronan) struggles to control her class, with one of her students (Eddie Waller) constantly flying off into a rage. After an altercation, she locks him in her basement and keeps him imprisoned. This was always going to be a dark comedy, but what surprised me was this film’s reluctance to shock the audience. Instead the tone is quite muted and business as usual, and it makes its sense of humour almost darker somehow. It’s the ultimate ‘paint yourself into a corner’ sort of script, where you can’t help but think whatever ending they come up with his either going to be violent or annoying. Through very careful pacing and writing it winds up being neither, and still succeeds in getting its point across. Aside from Saoirse Ronan who these days can do no wrong, the stand out for me is Nia Brown as the goody-two-shoes kid. Her part looks like comic relief but it grows into something much weirder and more interesting, and more…