Bad Apples

Bad Apples, 2026, 3 ½ stars

Red Delicious

Apples is intriguing to its core

Exclusive to MeierMovies, September 22, 2026

I finally picked Bad Apples, one of last year’s TIFF tastings. Though director Jonatan Etzler’s film is stuck somewhere between satire and realism, between dark comedy and drama, it stays fresh thanks to a great lead performance by Saoirse Ronan (the world’s greatest actress whose name you can’t pronounce), Eddie Waller as the bad schoolboy she abducts and keeps locked in her basement, and Nia Brown as a fellow classmate. Indeed, those two juvenile performances are among the best I’ve seen in recent years.

Like the unruly student, the film’s true meaning stays somewhat locked away, but I still never stopped listening intently for that meaning. And the script (by Jess O’Kane, adapted from the Swedish novel by Rasmus Lindgren) offers enough intrigue and surprise along the way to forgive any unfulfilled potential. The novel’s seeds could have grown more, but the film is nevertheless delicious.

For more information on the movie, visit IMDB and Wikipedia. The film is currently playing in cinemas. It is rated R.