Bad Apples

How to Control a Large Pet?

An apple factory, shot like a commercial. Glossy, bruised apples roll down the line. Then a single sneaker, left behind among them. Bad Apples knows exactly what it's saying: we traded paradise for an apple, and we still don't know what to do with the bad ones.

Cinema has spent years wondering what to do with difficult children, and whether the right adult can make all the difference. Jonatan Etzler asks something far less comforting: what if everyone else really is better off without one of them?

Casting Saoirse Ronan is a clever move. We've watched her fight for something bigger in Brooklyn, Lady Bird, and Little Women. We're used to being on her side. Here, that loyalty works against us. She makes it alarmingly easy to stay with a woman whose choices grow harder and harder to defend.

Bad Apples never lets you settle on a side. I walked out tense, irritated, and still asking what the right answer could possibly be. See it with someone who's sure they have one. You'll have plenty to argue about on the way home.