Heel & Bad Apples (TIFF 2025 bonus reviews) — Movie Oubliette

Our fourth bonus preview of forthcoming attractions that Conrad and Joe Lipsett caught at TIFF focuses on two British thrillers with a similar theme: children being locked in basements! The first, Heel (it was called 'Good Boy' when we saw it, but they must have changed it to avoid confusion with the haunted house film told through the eyes of a dog), sees an aimless and hedonistic teenager (Anson Boon) get abducted by Chris (Stephen Graham) and Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough), and subjected to their unorthodox approach to parenting. The second, Bad Apples, stars Saoirse Ronan as a primary school teacher in the UK who, though an unfortunate sequence of events, ends up trapping a foul-mouthed, disruptive student in her basement. One is a compelling character drama that recognises and eschews genre conventions, the other is a cuttingly satirical black comedy. Did we like them? Find out!

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