TIFF 2025: Bad Apples Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Bad Apples is a dark satirical thriller with a sharp sense of humor, taking aim at the state of the current education system and the lengths some are willing to go to keep the peace. Right away, one can’t help but notice Danny (Waller), a student who is also an absolute menace. Following his latest incident, one where he pushed one of his classmates down the stairs, Maria (Ronan), his teacher, found herself in an altercation with Danny that same evening, the result of that being Danny ending up in Maria’s basement. Be it self-preservation, Maria may not have meant for it to happen, but this new development would go on and have a life of its own, for better or worse. 

From there, as Danny found himself in Maria’s basement of his she continued on and attempted to go about her normal life. That being said, her basement is a weirdly homey and comfortable place for it being the den of a kidnapped student. Over time, the teacher realizes that Danny is falling behind on school work and decides to give him one-on-one lessons and weirdly… Danny seems to be benefitting from them. When she realizes that Danny can’t read, she reverts back to the basics, as if she were teaching a young child. Meanwhile, in her primary classroom, the rest of her students are thriving without Danny therefore Maria can devote more of her resources and energy to here remaining students, rather than ensuring Danny isn’t disrupting her lessons, as well as keeping him on track. 

Despite being mostly absurdist and satirical, the film effectively portrays the effect of underfunding has on schools and students. For example, Maria needing to devote most of her energy during her class’s most recent field trip to an apple orchard to one student affects her ability to give the other students the attention they deserve. This can be seen when after Danny begins receiving some one-on-one attention from Maria, he starts doing better with his schoolwork, and is better behaved. In spite of his circumstances, things go well for him while trapped in the basement of his school teacher. 

As the film gets closer to the end, it perhaps shows signs of being a little too long as the level of its absurdity goes a little too far. Once parents and students become involved, audiences discover the lengths those are willing to go to keep the peace. Parents are happy with how their children are doing, thriving in the classroom. The decisions made and actions taken stretch the plot a bit too far, making the story mildly repetitive at times but based on the initial premise, there are only so many ways it can go. Ultimately held together by a fantastic performance by Ronan, in a role unlike anything she has portrayed before; one that is dark, yet funny and empathetic. While the tone may be a little all over the place, and perhaps the film gets a little repetitive, but it succeeds in its commentary of the education system, schools are deeply underfunded and students are paying the price.

still courtesy of Republic Pictures

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Jasmine Graham