Reviews
“Apt Pupil” Is One Of The Strangest Movies I’ve Ever Seen
In my (most likely futile) quest to watch all Stephen King inspired movies, I stumbled across one of the weirdest viewing experiences of my life.
“A boy blackmails his neighbor after suspecting him to be a Nazi war criminal.”
Director: Bryan Singer
Writers: Stephen King, Brandon Boyce
Starring: Ian McKellen, Brad Renfro, Joshua Jackson, David Schwimmer
Release Date: October 23, 1998
IMDB
In my (most likely futile) quest to watch all Stephen King inspired movies, I stumbled across one of the weirdest viewing experiences of my life.
Apt Pupil (1998) tails the strange relationship between a young school boy Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) and his elderly neighbor Kurt Dussander (Ian McKellen). Todd has a fascination with a certain era of German history…an era that involved swastikas. Todd approaches Kurt and blackmails him after putting together that this seemingly harmless man is actually a Nazi war criminal. Todd’s blackmail is not for money, bur rather for education. He wants to hear the stories and learn from Kurt.
Truly, a fucked up story right from the jump. It gets even weirder when the vibes of the relationship begin to change and Kurt begins to have the upper hand. He sees how hungry Todd is to learn so he begins to peer pressure his way into a leverage position. Things get twisted in the end when Todd is thrown into a position he never thought he would find himself in, and Kurt’s effectiveness in conveying his banned passions make the end of Apt Pupil a whacky WTF moment.
Apt Pupil is an absolutely bonkers premise that needs to be credited to the original author, Stephen King. The bestselling churner or discomforting horror wrote Apt Pupil after he wrote The Shining, which connects to a lovely Reddit theory where many think that this novella is actually the story that Jack Torrence wrote. There are some thematic ties about an elderly mentor passing down his demons to a younger version of himself. It is a bit of a leap.
Knowing how demented the idea is on a grant scale, Apt Pupil is clouded in more mystery once you see who it is directed by. Bryan Singer made some well known movies, but he is not a great guy. In fact, his first run in with major controversy came in 1997 when a 14 year old extra in the Apt Pupil accused the director of forcing the minors to shower naked for a scene. The case was dismissed for insignificant evidence, but it does act as a prologue to the 2014 case where Singer was accused of sexual assault of another minor. This time around Singer supposedly drugged and raped an actor at a party hosted by a different convicted sexual offender.
Nothing stuck with Singer until 2019 when four different men accused Singer of sexual assaulting them when they were underage. This led to Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) being tarnished a bit and since his uncreated work on Dark Phoenix (2019), Singer has not worked in Hollywood in any capacity.
I went on that diatribe to say that Singer has a history (whether it be true or not depending on your belief in the evidence and claims) of being accused as abusive and persuasive towards those who can be taken advantage of. Apt Pupil has more than a little bit in common with such a theme. Todd is the one taking advantage of Kurt, using and abusing him for perverse pleasure that is not allowed in normal society. Eventually their relationship becomes chaotic, effectively becoming a power grab behind the public’s watching eye to see who will get the final word. One could say the silent battle between Kurt and Todd is symbolic of the courtroom battles Singer found himself in regarding his multiple allegations.
So with that ALL in mind…is Apt Pupil a good movie?
Honestly, It is really just a confusing process. Shoutout Section 10. The balls to make this movie is one thing, and the casting is a whole other ordeal.
I never in a million years would have thought that Ian McKellen would be playing a Nazi. Just not something that I had in my mental deck of cards. But with that being said, McKellen proves that he is a talented old mother fucker. The man manages to have the viewer feel sympathy as a Nazi war criminal. Yea, I said it. When Kurt is forced to parade around his home in an old Nazi uniform for sole purpose of Todd’s pleasure, one wants to strangle the mentally unstable youth.
The really crazy thing about McKellen is that he has not played many iconic villains. Or I should probably say that I don’t remember him for many villainous roles. The only other immediate reaction I have of McKellen as a killer is of the mentally scarred character of Magneto in the X-Men franchise. And in a twisted bit of fate, Magneto is a man who was imprisoned in a concentration camp and fought himself out. Also X-Men (2000) and X2: United (2003) were both directed by Bryan Singer.
Brad Renfro has the dubious task of going toe-to-toe with Ian McKellen. He was first cast in The Client (1994) and found himself on a few 30 under 30 hype lists. I could have sworn that I was watching a young Ethan Hawke. Renfro was about 16 years old when Apt Pupil came out, and Hawke was 28 years old, but I do think there is an uncanny facial resemblance.
Renfro is good in Apt Pupil. THere are moments where he is overreacting a bit, but in a part where he is a playing a character that’s over-the-top, it is to be expected. The final moments of the movie when Todd is confronted by the school’s guidance counselor Edward French (David Schwimmer) is a rather effective final act. The evil has been passed down and absorbed. The deceitful mind-warping brainwashing capabilities used throughout the movie by Tood and Kurt and now spring upon this unsuspecting and unknowing adult.
It is not a very happy ending. There is death, both in the literal and symbolic sense.
So listen, Apt Pupil is weird. I am not sure it is good. It is hard to watch at times, but it’s the type of visual stress that is hard to look away from. Apt Pupil is best experienced out of a lens of curiosity, not of entertainment or critiquing.
If you are curious how this Stephen King novella comes to life, its streaming on Amazon Prime.
STANKO RATING: D+
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