Film

Bad Apples

A primary school teacher reaches her breaking point with a violent, foul-mouthed student and takes matters into her own hands—only to discover how readily her entire community will ignore the darkest truths to protect their comfortable illusions. A comedy-thriller that finds dark humour in institutional complicity and collective delusion.

TMDb rating3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy dark comedy that sours slowly, where a respectable community's politeness becomes the most unsettling thing on screen and every laugh carries a small chill.

Skip it if you want warmth or a brisk plot, since its mood can turn mean rather than mischievous and its humour often sits on something unpleasant.

What it asks of you: Across a compact hundred minutes it builds slowly, letting unease gather in small social details rather than set-pieces, so it rewards patience with discomfort.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Lesson2023

A substitute teacher in an unnamed country is held hostage by a student, interrogated about education's purpose, forced to confront her own compromises. Sharp, claustrophobic, philosophically vicious.

But The setting is deliberately abstract and alienating; long stretches of talk can feel airless rather than tense.

The Lesson poster

Four Lions2010

Chris Morris finds pitch-black comedy in the incompetence and human contradiction of radicalization. Offensive, clever, unexpectedly moving. The tone—treating extremists as bumbling failures—is the whole point.

But The subject matter (Islamic terrorism) and the choice to make it funny will alienate people who think that's inherently disrespectful.

Four Lions poster

Nightcrawler2014

Jake Gyllenhaal as an amoral hustler navigating media and institutional decay. Sleek, nasty, darkly funny about how systems enable monsters while everyone looks away. Tightly wound.

But Relentlessly bleak and cynical; there are no good people, just degrees of complicity. Some find that exhausting.

Nightcrawler poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Bad Apples

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Come and See1985

Both examine how communities and institutions abandon morality to protect themselves; both find the real horror not in individual acts but in collective silence.

A Belarusian boy witnesses Nazi brutality on the Eastern Front. Elem Klimov's film is unflinching, hallucinatory, and documents how ordinary people normalize atrocity. One of cinema's most important examinations of moral collapse.

But Extremely graphic depictions of violence, murder, and sexual assault. Not a drama—a document of horror. Watching it is genuinely harrowing, not entertainment.

Come and See poster
More like this (8)

Veep2012

Institutional chaos and the lengths people go to protect face and power. Fast, vicious dialogue. Armando Iannucci's writing dissects how bureaucracy rewards cruelty and cowardice.

But Seven seasons is a commitment; the jokes are dense and assume you track dozens of characters and inside-baseball US politics references.

Veep poster

The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017

Yorgos Lanthimos builds dread through deliberate artificiality and moral paralysis. A family's quiet acceptance of punishment for an old wrong. Hypnotic and unsettling.

But The pacing is glacial; dialogue is stilted and formal; the violence, when it arrives, is blunt and will disturb many viewers.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer poster

Hot Fuzz2007

A small town hides horrifying crimes beneath quaint charm. Edgar Wright's action-comedy knows that the threat isn't outsiders—it's the people you trust. Clever, funny, genuinely thrilling.

But It's more action-heavy than thriller-heavy; if you want sustained dread rather than comic relief, you'll be disappointed.

Hot Fuzz poster

Heavyweights1995

A fat camp's upbeat corporate takeover masks casual cruelty and humiliation. Judd Apatow directed this as a comedy, but it's really about how systems rationalize harm to children.

But It's a '90s kids' film with dated references and broad comedy that hasn't aged seamlessly; the satire is gentler than the premise suggests.

Heavyweights poster

A Prophet2009

A young man learns to survive and manipulate within prison's brutal hierarchies. Gritty, propulsive, and bleakly intelligent about power, adaptation, and institutional violence.

But Violence is graphic and sustained; the film doesn't soften prison life. It's also entirely in French with subtitles.

A Prophet poster

Badlands1973

Two teenagers commit murders and run; Terence Malick romanticizes their violence while quietly indicting a society that failed them. Visually exquisite, philosophically cruel.

But Elliptic and dreamy rather than plot-driven; the narration is omniscient and detached, which some find mannered. It moves at its own pace.

Badlands poster

Matilda1996

Both feature a child at odds with an institution; both ask what happens when adults default on their duty. But Matilda frames it as fantasy triumph rather than institutional critique.

A brilliant child endures a corrupt school and abusive home, then uses her gifts to expose them. Danny DeVito directed this as family entertainment, but it's about a child who has no adults to trust and saves herself.

But It's marketed to children; the whimsy and magic can feel saccharine if you're looking for the teeth beneath it. The film doesn't fully interrogate its own darkness.

Matilda poster

The Power of the Dog2021

Both explore how a community protects a dangerous person, and how that protection is itself a choice made by people who know better.

A rancher's cruelty masks desire; his nephew and a widow navigate his control. Jane Campion builds meaning through silence and gesture. Methodical, beautiful, with a final act that recontextualizes everything you've watched.

But Slow-burn psychological Western that demands patience; if you want plot momentum and clear character arcs, it will feel obscure and precious.

The Power of the Dog poster

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