"I've been adapted by Kubrick, DePalma, Cronenberg, all kinds of people. It's a sushi bar," says novelist Stephen King of the more than two dozen movies that have been made from his stories. "There's a lot that I don't particularly care for."

Although he includes Kubrick's The Shining and Maximum Overdrive--which he directed himself--in the unfavored grouping, King feels differently about the films that have sprung from Different Seasons. His 1982 collection of four novellas includes "The Body" (filmed as 1986's Stand by Me); "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" (1994's The Shawshank Redemption); and "Apt Pupil," which has been adapted by The Usual Suspects director Bryan Singer and is now in theaters. "It was just a lucky work," King says of his collection, "the first thing I had done that was sort of outside the horror genre. The book was real successful, and the movies have been fantastic."

Pupil is the story of a teenager (Brad Renfro) who discovers that a former Nazi (Ian McKellen) is living in his small town, and blackmails him into describing his nitmarish deeds. "It's like The Waltons turned inside out," King says. "It's everything that's wrong that's wrong with passing knowledge down to the younger generation. I think kids will like it a lot."

Although he stresses that Singer did "a great job," he adds, "I don't like the ending very much. It's not my ending. I talked to him about it, but there came a point where I could see him closing down and saying, 'This guy's got some ideas that are just totally wrong. But he's an old guy and he's got to have his say, and then I'm gonna do what I want.' " King would also "have taken [the horror] a few notches further. But I have a tendency to go way over the top."

As for Apt Pupil's teen slasher-flick competition, King is dismissive: "The problem with a movie like Halloween: H20 is that it's just not scary," he says. "If you're gonna kill 'em, at least kill 'em."
--SCOTT WARREN

PEOPLE, 10/26/98
Apt Pupil

Ian McKellen, Brad Renfro

Never trust a Nazi. So learns the teenage protagonist of Apt Pupil, an honorable but not entirely successful attempt by director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects) to make a morally complex horror movie.

Set in 1984, the film begins with its star pupil (Renfro) discovering that an elderly man living in his California town is an escaped Nazi war criminal. Instead of calling the cops, Renfro spends months pumping the man (McKellen) about the horrors of the Holocaust. "I want you to tell me everything they're afraid to tell us in school," he instructs McKellen. Both man and boy find themselves sickly stirred by the memories. Soon the old man is shoving a cat into an oven. The boy is bludgeoning a pigeon. Neither stops there.

Pupil starts off as an absorbing thriller about the nature and seductiveness of evil but, by its end, devolves into a more standard horror film in which evil is simply evil, and corpses pile up. The movie is, after all, based on a 1982 novellas by Stephen King, whose credentials as a moral philosopher about Nazism don't exactly rival Hannah Arendt's. The acting, though, is terrific. As the unrepentant German, McKellen is chilling. Playing his eager student, Renfro is, scarily, all too convincing.

(R) Bottom Line: Good try, but the lesson plan could use some tinkering.

The Usual Suspects' Bryan Singer turns in killer work with Apt Pupil, an eerie adaptation of Stephen King's insidious tale of hidden horror

THE HOLOCAUST IS ONE HORROR Stephen King didn't invent. But he did scare up a new psychological use for that chapter in the long history of human capacity for atrocity. Apt Pupil, based on a 16-year-old novella, is about th untamed evil that exists in the hearts of adolescent boys, even in boys as all-American as Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro). Todd is a top high school student whose interest in Hitler-era Nazism goes far beyond what's covered in history class. Immersing himself in the kind of obsessive study other disaffected teenagers give to South Park or Marilyn Manson, he pieces together that the local resident who calls himself Arthur Denker is actually Kurt Dussander (Ian McKellen), a former SS officer. And with the dead-eyes sangfroid only a 16-year-old suburbanite can pull off (and which Sleepers' Renfro pulls off with unnerving believability), Todd confronts Dussander and blackmails him: He won't turn the hidden Nazi in if the old man will tell the young man detailed stories about the machinery of inhumanity.

Director Bryan Singer is an intriguing match for this tricky material. The Usual Suspects (1995) showcased his visual flair and his aptitude for handling a plot built on a puzzle, but that film was a cold, showy piece of work. With Apt Pupil, the director takes a stand--the face of everyday evil rides a bike, plays basketball, and dreams of gas showers--and it's in the slow transfusion of Dussander's criminality to Todd's bad veins that Singer tells a story with serious moral resonance.

This one is a kind of puzzle, too, and patience is required to get past some of the director's more baroque cinematic touches, decorating the story's dark center with visual furbelows (Dussander watches Mr. Magoo on TV) and aural gimmicks (the famous "Liebstod" from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde blares before one particularly bloody scene). Patience, though, brings rewards. Apt Pupil doesn't pan out as a hunted-Nazi thriller; although Dussander--chillingly interpretated by McKellen, who's spectacular in every role these days--at one point goose-steps in an old SS uniform. Neither is it a full-tilt Stephen King thriller, particularly after first-time screenwriter Brandon Boyce softens up the violence of the author's murderous text.

But absorb Apt Pupil as a student-teacher parable, a shaping-of-character tale about an unusual Nazi suspect and an alienated kid as American as apple strudel, and you're in for a start more disturbing than anything Keyser Söze could provide.

- LISA SCHWARZBAUM

Apt Pupil
3 out of 4 stars

MARSHALL FINE
The Journal News

"What did you do during the war, Daddy?" is still one of those loaded questions, when asked to Germans of a certain age.

But Ian McKellen, as an aged German who calls himself Arthur Denker, has a ready anser, one that places him far out of the action. As he goes about his quiet, secluded life in a small house in southern California, he seems the picture of an aged expatriate, with little connection to the horrors and atrocities of World War II.

But appearances are always deceiving in the work of Stephen King. In director Bryan Singer's adaptation of King's "Apt Pupil," no one is quite what they seem--and everyone is slightly nastier than you'd imagine.

Singer, who burst forth with "The Usual Suspects" a couple of years ago, does a solid job of grounding this far-fetched story in reality. In the process, he allows us a look at the nature of evil, as well as its insidiously contagious nature.

In fact, Denker is Kurt Dussander, a Nazi war criminal who disappeared after the war. He is spotter on a bus one day in the early 1980s by a high-school student, Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro), who is obsessed with the Holocaust.

Todd tracks him down to his house and confronts him: Denker is in fact Dussander, a man being hunted by the Israelis for his crimes. Todd will keep Dussander's secret--but in exchange, Dussander must tell Todd everything--everything--about his experiences in the Nazi death camps.

"What happened--exactly?" Todd asks him.

Denker's answers engulf Todd's life in an unexpected way. He finds himself consumed with the stories, to the point that his schoolwork begins wo suffer. He is fascinated by the grisly details and a little drunk with the power he has over the elderly Nazi. He even goes so far as to buy Denker a replica of an SS uniform and orders him to march around Denker's tiny house, to get a further taste for what the good old days were like.

"Apt Pupil" is about power, and about the way its balance can subtly shift without warning. In this case, it's Todd's slumping studies that provide the edge Denker needs to free himself from Todd's grasp.

But even that split cannot sever the ties that hold them together. Todd has stirred old feelings in Denker that result in his seeking to recapture what obviously was conscienceless tendency toward violence. But that sudden eruption of long-suppressed impulses triggers the end game that draws Todd back into his orbit in unexpected ways.

The set-up for this finale seems more contrived than anything else in the film. Singer and writer Brandon Boyce haven't cracked the puzzle of how to conclude this story without creating a moment that seems psychologically hard to swallow. The idea that Dussander is intrinsically evil--so much so he would commit a murder just for the thrill of it--certainly offers a chance to bring in all the finale, but plays like something forced into existence, rather than an organice element of the story.

Still, once Singer gets past that weak link, he drives the story home to a satisfyingly creppy conclusion that leaves Todd's future very much in question. Having learned at the hands of an old pro, Todd seems poised to launch a life in which he will be as much a master manipulator as his teacher.

Brad Renfro has an all-American glow as Todd, one that belies his ability to lie without blinking. Renfro captures that cusp-like quality of adolescence, in a character whose fascination with evil is that of a thrill-seeking child that changes into the appreciation of a more-seasoned adult.

McKellen, one of our finest actors, conveys muted menace in every look, every gesture, without actually portraying it. It is a nuanced, subtle performance that survives even this film's occasional wrong turn.

"Apt Pupil" is ultimately a movie that is about less than it would like to believe. But it still delivers both visceral shocks and intellectual chills, thanks to its fine central performances.

By JANET MASLIN

There's a scene in "Apt Pupil" in which an old man, a former Nazi war criminal, literally takes his marching orders from a clean-cut high school boy. The old man moves his feet reluctantly at first, then displays a mocking, puppetlike compliance. But as he moves faster and faster, something terrible happens: long-dormant evil is rekindled and the old man begins to stomp as fiercly as he did for the Third Reich. "Boy, be careful," he hisses to his teen-age taskmaster. "You play with fire!"

That's the hook for Bryan Singer's first film since "The Usual Suspects," adapted from the Stephen King novella collection that seems to have been written under a lucky star. ("The Shawshank Redemption" and "Stand by Me" come from the same volume, "Different Seasons.") Mr. Singer brings his craftmanship and clinical precision to another story in which shrewd wickedness knows no bounds. And Ian McKellen, Hollywood's improbable It Guy of the moment, is irresistible enough to minimize another similarity to "The Usual Suspects": there's much cruel fascination here, but there's nobody to like.

"Apt Pupil" certainly begins on a hateful note, with the discovery by the schoolboy Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) that a notorious Nazi is hiding in his town. The boy's next move is to confront Kurt Dussander (Mr. McKellen), a recluse living under a pseudonym, with a blackmail threat. If Dussander doesn't follow orders, Todd plans to blow his cover. And what does Todd want in exchange for his silence? "I want to hear about it," he says. "The stories. Everything. Everything they're afraid to tell us in school."

Todd is full of questions. ("And once they were in the chamber, how long did it take? Like a minute? Five minutes?") Dussander, for his part, lets down his guard and becomes the enthusiastic raconteur. ("And it still wasn't enough for Himmler," he muses about some awful deed.) But rather than dwelling on the past, "Apt Pupil" soon evolves into a war of nerves as Todd begins realizing he's in for more than he bargained for. The old Nazi begis to manipulate and haunt him. And as the title indicates, Todd is a quick study when it comes to misanthropy. "The boy proved to be a very good student," Dussander remarks mischievously one day, "but perhaps not in the way his mother and dad envisioned."

Drawing on much of the impressive technical talent behind "The Usual Suspects," Mr. Singer makes this a handsomely shot (by Newton Thomas Sigel), stunningly edited (by John Ottman) feat of gamesmanship. Mr. McKellen works all of his considerable wiles as a man who keeps his monstrousness under wraps. And if Mr. Renfro ("The Client," "Sleepers") can't match his complexity, he can put a diabolically wholesome face on Todd's budding viciousness. Both actors play their roles so trickily that tensions escalate until the horror grows unimaginably gothic. By the time somebody is wielding a shovel as a murder weapon in the basement and there's an exclamation of "Now we'll see what you're made of!," the story's cleverness is notably on the wane.

Far from being a claustrophobic two-character piece, "Apt Pupil" (adapted by Brandon Boyce) is full of secondary characters and artful visual contrasts. Thus Dussander's lair is a place that time has forgotten, while Todd lives in the epitome of a privilidged, squeaky-clean suburban life. Among the film's other characters are Elias Koteas as a mysterious derelict who glimpses Dussander at his most outrageous; David Schwimmer as the school guidance counselor whose brown shirt and thick mustache suit a tale of Nazi evil; Bruce Davison as Todd's clean-cut, oblivious father, and Joe Morton as proof that the past will not be denied.

"Apt Pupil" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian).

In Mr. Singer's adaptation of a Stephen King story, young, icy-eyed Todd Bowden (Mr. Renfro) leans close to the elderly Kurt Dussander (Mr. McKellen). Todd has dusted Dussander's mailbox for fingerprints and found 14 "compares," or matches needed for absolute identification of Dussander as a Nazi war criminal. Does Dussander realize what the police would do to him with the information? Or the Israelis? All told, the boy concludes, it would be better for the old man to do what he wishes.

Todd wants Dussander to tell him what it was like at the death camps where Dussander was a guard and helped exterminate people. Todd wants him to tell him how long it took to kill the victims in the shower rooms and how they looked and acted as they were being gassed and everything else about what took place. Tell him or Todd will turn in the old man, who now lives as a recluse under an ssumed name.

But Dussander proves to be a whole lot more than Todd bargained for and, turning the tables on the boy with a nifty ruse, plunges the two of them into a shifting game of survival.

VIOLENCE Not continual but a good amount, and graphic. Dussander stabs a drifter and throws him in the cellar. Later the supposedly dead man rised and attacks Todd, who brains him with a shovel.
SEX None.
PROFANITY Strong obscenities.

For Which Children?
UNDER AGE 13 This is not a film for children, though older ones in this group might be drawn by the subject matter.
AGES 14 AND UP Gore and language earned the R rating, but teen-agers have seen as bad or worse in many films. Violence acknowledged, the film does present provocative issues in an intriguing manner.

Teaser: BRYAN SINGER'S adaptation of the STEPHEN KING novella is a creepy piece of work.
Review: 2.5 Stars

Thriller

Premise: A California high school student obsessed with the Holocaust strikes up a dangerous friendship with a Nazi war criminal.

Pitch: Stand by Me meets In a Glass Cage, the 1986 Spanish art movie about the suffocating relationship between a crippled Nazi war criminal and the young man in his thrall.

Pedigree: Stephen King's novella Apt Pupil appeared in the 1982 collection Different Seasons, which also contained the stories that were filmed as Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption.

Audience: Dedicated Stephen King fans

Verdict: A disturbing examination of a morbid high school student's mutation into an out and-out sociopath, Apt Pupil features an exceptionally unpleasant performance by teen actor BRAD RENFRO (The Client) and a disquietingly insinuating turn by SIR IAN MCKELLEN as the unrepentant Nazi. Todd Bowden (Renfro) is academically ahead of his peer group and socially a bit behind, particularly when it comes to girls; his self-absorbed parents (BRUCE DAVISON and ANN DOWD) don't see anything amiss, because Todd maintains the façade of an all-American good student and obedient son. But secretly he's obsessed with Nazi war crimes, and to his delight, he discovers that notorious concentration camp commander Kurt Dussander (McKellen) is living, quietly and under an assumed name, right in his hometown. After surreptitiously gathering enough evidence to expose Dussander, Todd blackmails the old man. The price of the teen's silence is Dussander's memories: Todd wants to hear every grisly detail about ovens and medical experiments and forced marches to mass graves -- all the gruesome facts glossed over in his 12th-grade history books.

First is Bryan Singer's "Apt Pupil," based on the Stephen King novella. I got to see it at Austin's own movie palace, the Paramount, on closing night of the Austin Film Festival, with Singer in attendance. After a painful array of projection and scheduling problems that plagued this year's fest, this screening came off with nary a hitch. (Although I'd say there was a bit of Hitch's influence in the film, though.)

Expectations for this film have obviously been high, as it is Singer's follow-up to "The Usual Suspects." It is, in fact, a rather bold and unexpected choice of project for him to have taken on. It's an intimate character study -- a theatrical duet, if you will -- that isn't particularly commercial. At all. It's a risky film, and demonstrates Singer's maturity as a director, and in particular his ability to elicit strong, memorable performances from his actors.

By now you should know the premise -- a high school student, while studying the Holocaust, uncovers the fact that a Nazi war criminal is living in his community, and blackmails him into telling him the story of his life during the war. What follows is a psychological tug-of-war that escalates into a battle of wills, as each character is forced to confront the darkness that resides in the depths of their souls.

Now, on the surface, this could be a "Movie of the Week" or, worse, an "Afterschool Special." But Singer weaves a pretty engaging tale full of twists and interesting characters. However, the basic premise is going to be a barrier for most moviegoers, who will no doubt choose less challenging fare. And, in fact, I think the film is handicapped from achieving greatness simply due to the limitations of the story it is telling.

At the center of the film, of course, is the stunningly brilliant Ian McKellan -- probably one of the five greatest actors alive today. Having been a fan of his for years, I relished the chance to see him in this role. There are some unfortunate superficial similarities to his deliciously evil "Richard III," but, as Singer pointed out in the Q&A, most people haven't seen that film. (If you haven't, you should; rent it a.s.a.p.!) Brad Renfro also turns in a strong performance, which impressed and surprised me. But even though he's the film's lead, the movie belongs to McKellan, even if his is technically a supporting role. (Which, in fact, is just as well; this way he can get an Oscar nomination for both this film, as well as his even superior lead performance in the astounding "Gods and Monsters," which I'll review tomorrow.)

The film's supporting cast is also strong, with nice work from Bruce Davison, Elias (Wolverine?) Koteas, and -gasp!- David Schwimmer. Yes, it's true. Really. Listen, I _despise_ "Friends," and have never been able to sit through an entire episode (how does anybody do it?). I applaud both Singer's bravery in casting him, as well as Schwimmer's in taking the role. It's distracting at first, but ultimately works. And, of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't single out John Ottman's fine contributions as both editor and composer of the score.

All in all, "Apt Pupil" is a really good film that just might end up on my Top Ten list for the year. It's a haunting examination on the nature of evil, though I think it just falls short of greatness. And while it's not likely to set the world on fire like "The Usual Suspects," it's a finely crafted, solid piece of work -- one that instills me with even greater confidence for Singer's forthcoming "X-Men." (Psst! Hey Bryan, cast Terence Stamp as Magneto! Please?)

Bryan Singer
Apt Pupil
(TriStar Pictures) R

it's worth $2.25 (movies rated on a scale from $1.00 (wait for cable) to $7.50 (pay full price))

One of the biggest mysteries of American cinema is why Stephen King's psycho-psychological acumen defies big screen adaptation. While we scratch our heads, confusing movies like Apt Pupil continue to be the consequence. Like so many before him, director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects) seems to have been caught in the headlights of a King-based screenplay, unsure whether to run the thriller route or jump into straight horror. Singer does a little of both, then just sits there, content to get crushed by the weight of this difficult story about a highschooler who becomes obsessed with a German World War II war criminal he discovers hiding in Everytown, America. The audience gets flattened in turn, as this two-hour marathon, which could have been told in an hour and a half, does its best to convince you it runs closer to three hours. It's painful to watch Singer stretch out throw-away scenes of Brad Renfro (in a benign performance) riding his bike and flunking tests at school, then to attempt to wrap up the complicated climax and add some poignancy in five minutes or less, as if he too finally gave up on the whole debacle. Ian McKellan is fairly convincing as the Nazi killer, doing his best in a role that inevitably turns stereotypical, but in the end, the only chilling moments are ones you wish you were reading.
- Graham Verdon

by Michael Dequina
Apt Pupil
Sony Pictures, Rated R, TriStar

Bryan Singer's adaptation of the Stephen King novella Apt Pupil opens with images one would associate with such a title. A high school student receives an "A" on a paper and then shuttles off to the library, immersing himself in research as the opening titles unspool. As this dark, often disturbing psychological thriller progresses, the title's meaning remains the same, except it gradually takes on a much more sinister perspective.

The apt pupil seen at the opening of the film is 16-year-old high school student Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro), whose intense extracurricular research on the Holocaust leads him to discover that one Arthur Denker (Ian McKellen), an old man whom he has seen around town, is really Nazi war criminal-in-hiding Kurt Dussander. But instead of turning him in, Todd proposes an odd exchange: his silence in return for Dussander's first-hand accounts of wartime atrocities.

Of course, dredging up the past brings to the surface Dussander's fascist tendencies, but Apt Pupil goes one step further in that the stories bring forth Todd's capacity for evil as well; it is this psychological seduction that lends the film a queasy fascination. Singer and screenwriter Brandon Boyce also go against the populist Hollywood grain by boldly making the already fairly unsympathetic characters moreso as the film goes on. While the absence of a likable lead character will certainly off-put many moviegoers, and one contrived plot development is a bit hard to swallow, audiences are nonetheless more than likely to remain riveted by Renfro and McKellen's dead-on performances. Renfro's evolution from curious adolescent to hateful manipulator is unsettlingly believable while McKellen, speaking with a perfect German accent, gives Dussander an air of quiet majesty that is as frightening as it is deceiving.

While he heavily uses quick cuts and horrifying imagery, Singer admirably eschews easy "shock" gimmicks to jolt the audience out their seats. Instead, he appears more concerned with the collective effect of a variety shocks, visual and otherwise, on the viewer's psyche. As such, Apt Pupil gets under the skin like few thrillers do. A mad slasher with an axe does not necessarily constitute a successful frightfest; what does is the feeling of terror that comes with being pursued by such a force of evil. Apt Pupil's primary force of evil may be axe-less and of poor physical health, but his--and the film's--subtle brand of cerebral terror cuts sharper and deeper than anything found in a more conventional horror movie.

Chronicles of the Cinema
by Brian A. Gross
Apt Pupil
Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) is a youngster with a macabre interest in the Nazis and their campaign of terror against the Jews during WWII. Through his extensive after-school research at the library he finds pictures and artifacts leading him to believe that his next door neighbor was an infamous member of the Third Reich. His true name is Dussander (Ian McKellen), living for years as Arthur Denker, and he was a guard at such legendary death camps as Auschewitz. Todd devises to blackmail him and gathers his fingerprints from his mailbox, takes clandestine pictures of him, and is then ready to combine it all in order to confront the old man.

He challenges Dussander with the evidence he has and forces the old Nazi to tell him about the death camps. Todd’s moral ambiguity and curiosity turns to moral rot as the nightmares of death keep haunting him and he becomes consumed with the stories. What began as a morbid fascination of “what it felt like” to hurt, maim and kill became too strong a power for him, when power was what his adolescent mind craved. So the power he lorded was the only he knew, that of his over Dussander. By making him tell his awful stories to buying him an authentic German uniform and having him march in it. What he didn’t count on was the feelings resurfacing in the dormant heart of his German teacher.

Ian McKellen gives an excellent, steady performance and facially expresses the glee that is rising in his heart recalling his life as a sordid youth. He complains at first but is shown later dressing up in his new uniform and parading in front of a mirror. The alcoholic ex-Nazi whose only joy is the memories his “student” is pulling out of him from a past of unspeakable evil. It is a joy to watch a scene at Todd’s house for dinner; he sits with the Bowden family and when Todd states his boredom, Dussander takes up for him:

“It is a privilege of boys to be truthful.”

“A privilege that men have to sometimes give up.”

He soon presses the boundaries, from his memory to present day, and impersonates Todd’s grandfather at school one day. Posing as the doting and helpful elder as Todd sits agape at the older man’s cunning manipulation. And since Todd has neglected his schoolwork to the point of failing, Dussander serves his own purpose by pledging Todd’s devotion in studying his way back on track for graduation and, consequently, getting him out of his kitchen every day. When Todd realizes the depth of Dussander’s manipulation he relies on a handy obscenity, “go f--k yourself!” Dussander laughs and replies “Don’t you realize boy, we are f---ing each other?”

Though I am a big fan of Singer’s The Usual Suspects (one of the best films of the ‘90s) his choice in Apt Pupil as a follow-up is questionable. I must confess I have never read the King novella but from all accounts first-time screenwriter Brandon Boyce does cut the bloodiness of several scenes and has changed the ending that King wrote. As it stands the ending is pretty weak and suffers from the lack of Brad Renfro’s acting. A stronger more suited actor (like a young Edward Norton or Kiefer Sutherland) could have left the viewers with the lingering image of Todd Bowden far longer.

Posted 11/01

Apt Pupil
(reviewed 10-29-98)

Directed By Brian Singer

A disturbing thriller with the twists turns and simplicity that we love Stephen King for. Brian Singer does a great job with this film, although Usual Suspects is still my favorite of the two. Singer worked well with both a seasoned in Ian McKellen and the newer talent of Brad Renfo. Ian McKellen is frighteningly riveting in this film. I jumped and was on the edge of my seat several times! You should see this movie. A small roll for one of my favorite actors, Elias Koteas,(Rent Crash & Exotica) who is currently filming with Januz Kaminski on his directing debut.."Lost Souls". His performance was short but sweet!

Score 8.5/10

11/12/98 Today's movie: Apt Pupil
My rating: Matinee
Distributed by Tristar Pictures

Every review of a film adaptation of a written piece of fiction says that "it was not as good as the book." Unfortunately, this holds true for this movie, but for none of the same reasons that Stephen King novels don't make good movies. Or anyone else's books, really. Apt Pupil is from the same novella collection that spawned the excellent films Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption, from the same author that kept cinemas vacant with Thinner and Maximum Overdrive.
It's about a young student (Brad Renfro) who gets entangled in a strange cat and mouse Catch 22 relationship with a former Nazi criminal, each mentally brutalizing each other until...well, until something happens that I am not going to tell you about. It's a story that has taken 10 years to get to the screen at least (River Phoenix was the first Todd Bowden considered), but what kept it from the screen for so long was lost when it was finally filmed.
Consider King's also-excellent Misery, another mutual psychotic codependent relationship. It's twisted, it's disturbing, it's fascinating - *but it doesn't involve glorifying the Nazi atrocities.* So, friends and neighbors, to get this on screen, we have to cut out most of Renfro's transformation as a human being, most of the sick pathology below the All-American Valedictorian, and we have to concentrate on Herr Dussander's remorse and self-loathing.
This is more palatable, sure, but it utterly robs the characters of their motivation, the drama of its bite, the horror of its essence. What's left is a (thank goodness) above-average production of a castrated script.
Ian McKellen (Sir Ian) is perfect, he's seedy and old and wily and hiding from his past. Renfro is intense; he the actor wants to get into all the "gooshy stuff" (quote from the book) but he is held back. Neither actor is afraid of the subject matter, and perhaps the screenwriter is not afraid either - I suspect a lot of gooshy stuff is on the cutting room floor or typed on discarded multicolored script revision pages.
Just to watch Renfro hold his own with McKellan is worth the price of admission, and it is an interesting concept, but it forces you to go read the source material. So, here's a shameless plug: Pick up a copy of Different Seasons, and you will get three movies in one book, and one more.
The Shawshank Redemption is one of my favorite movies of all time, and it is one of the best book to film adaptations (besides Sense and Sensibility) I can think of. Bryan Singer directs with more heart than he did on Usual Suspects, but ultimately I have to blame the fraidy cats in the studio system. Oh, I have to warn you - David Schwimmer is also in this movie. I love him on Friends, but he is like a death knell to the movie. I was hoping he was cast to inject a little Jewish-Nazi style tension into the otherwise bland fascination that WWII atrocities hold for Renfro, but they skipped that as well.
An actor at the end gives a nakedly painful performance, the only indication that the Reich targeted any actual people. Of course we all know what happened, and maybe the filmmakers were assuming we were filling in the lines there, but the crux of the story is how in love child and elder secretly are with the horrors they revisit together. Take away that love - no, lust - and you got bupkiss. Except for some seriously hotshot acting. Check it out.
(c) 1998 Karina Montgomery

Rating System (from Best to Worst): Full Price Feature
Matinee Price only
Definite Rental
Catch it on HBO
Just wait for the Network Premiere
Avoid at All Costs

© 1998 Tristar Pictures , all rights reserved
Movie Reviews by Karina Montgomery
© 1998 Capitol City Publishing, LLC,all rights reserved
Capitol City Arts * Music-City / Venues * Contact Capitol-City

APT PUPIL (good)
Review by Harvey S. Karten, Ph.D.

Tri-Star Pictures/ Phoenix Pictures
Director: Bryan Singer
Writer: Brandon Boyce, novella by Stephen King
Cast: Brad Renfro, Ian McKellen, Bruce Davison, Elias
Koteas, Joe Morton, Jan Triska, Michael Byrne, Heather
McComb, Ann Dowd, Joshua Jackson, David Schwimmer

To borrow a story that recently appeared in the New York Times magazine...A Jewish fellow had just purchased a Volkswagen. Horrified that he would buy a German car, especially from a company accused of using Jews as slave labor during the Holocaust, he was confronted by a buddy. "How could you do this? How could you possibly buy a German car?" His friend replied (with a nod to Socrates), "Would you buy a pair of Italian shoes?" "Yes," the accuser admitted. "How about a leather jacket from Spain?" "Without hesitation, he responded. "Well, you know what Spain did to the Jews during the Inquisition, and of course, there's the matter of how the Roman Empire treated the Hebrews." "I hadn't thought of that," said the denouncer. "So you see," the buyer concluded wiping a speck of dust from the windshield, "It's just a matter of time."

The war is over, but some memories do no die so quickly, and perhaps that's good. As the good people say, if we forget about the Holocaust, we're more likely to experience such a disaster again. Stephen King, who wrote the novella on which "Apt Pupil" is based, has not forgotten, as he spins a tension-filled tale of a 1940s calamity that has a visceral impact on a Los Angeles suburb in 1984. Transcribed to the screen from a script by Brandon Boyce, Brian Singer's ("The Usual Suspects") parable on the contagious nature of evil is affecting, though the adaptation falls short of being cathartic. Essentially a two-character play expanded to take in the ambiance of a high school and a wealth suburban neighborhood, "Apt Pupil" is a dark story with an appropriately somber conclusion, propitiously avoiding the uplifting ending so popular in movies centering on high-school kids. It features Ian McKellen, the great British actor, who adopts a believable German accent throughout, with young Brad Renfro doing a creditable job playing off his talent against that of a real pro. "Apt Pupil" deals with what happens when a bright 16-year-old discovers that a Nazi war criminal is living in his immediate neighborhood. If this were a conventional chase drama, most of the action would be centered on the pursuit of the offender by the L.A.P.D., the F.B.I. and perhaps the Mossad. What we get instead is an intricate psychological drama pitting the ability of a bright, ambitious, intensely curious boy against the skills of a man accustomed to command in a see-saw battle for control. In a greater sense, "Apt Pupil" digs beneath the civilized veneer of its two principals to expose the evil that lies dormant, ready to spring into activity when the moment is right. The Stephen King signature is explicit in one scene of pure horror involving the murder of a man who remains alive despite a serious knife wound and several thumps on the head with a shovel clutched by a strong and determined young man.

"Apt Pupil" opens in 1984 on a high-school history class which has just spent a week studying the Holocaust. Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) actually does recommended research on his own to further his knowledge of the event. After poring over pictures of Nazi commandants in the local library, he believes he spots a man who, despite the passage of forty years, strongly resembles one of the photographs he has looked over. Boldly introducing himself at the home of Arthur Denker (Ian McKellen), he makes clear that he knows all about the old man's wartime activities at an infamous death camp, blackmailing him into revealing his first-hand knowledge of the gruesome enterprise. Over a period of several months he and this aged citizen have a profound effect on each other, the old man renewing his memories of what must have been the most exalted years of his life while he in turn arouses violent sensations in Todd that the boy never knew existed. As Todd continues to threaten the ex- Nazi with exposure, Denker plays his own trump card to intimidate the young man. Ultimately, the competition, fierce but without physical brutality, turns into an episode of violence that would not otherwise have taken place.

Bruce Davison in the role of Todd's dad and David Schwimmer as his high-school guidance counselor provide greater insight into the boy's social class, a privileged status which, combined with his academic ability, would have allowed him to pursue a successful, professional life. The particular advantage that Denker claims in order to keep Todd in line is contrived and not believable. Still, the audience comes away from this movie certain that the relationship savored by the two men will neither be forgotten by Todd, nor will it do other than to harm his career and his very future. As much as people of good will would like to bring every last Nazi war criminal to justice "Apt Pupil" is, at base, a warning that some truths are best left undisturbed. The tense, skillfully acted--but never didactic--film will be of particular value to adolescents who could not imagine being so personally involved in an incident with roots in what they probably consider ancient history.

Rated R. Running Time: 114 minutes.

© 1998 Harvey S. Karten

APT PUPIL
by Michael Gingold

Given Stephen King's skill with written horror and his stature in the fright field, it's ironic that many of the best films derived from his work have been those that sit outside the genre. The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me have been particular standouts (any 10 minutes of the former is worth all of Children of the Corn or The Mangler), and now Apt Pupil is arriving to make it three for three for adaptations of novellas from Different Seasons. While it's more overtly horrific than the other two, it is first and foremost a compelling psychological drama, deriving its chills not by exposing the innards of the body but by plumbing the depths of the soul.

"While it's more overtly horrific than the other two, it is first and foremost a compelling psychological drama."
The subject of at least one aborted prior film attempt, King's Apt Pupil told the story of a teenager named Todd Bowden, who discovers that an old man living in his small town is actually a Nazi war criminal. Todd confronts Arthur Denker, née Kurt Dussander, with knowledge of his identity, and presses the old man to recount his concentration camp experiences. The boy's curiosity grows inexorably into obsession, leading to insanity and murder. For the movie, director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Brandon Boyce have toned down the violence and altered the ending; Todd no longer goes on a sniping spree, which is probably just as well given recent real-life events. But the emotional intensity of the material has not been compromised one bit.

Nor have they compromised the disturbing themes that do remain. Dealing with Nazism and a darkly co-dependent relationship between an older man and a young boy would be a tricky business for any filmmaker, but Singer eschews an exploitative approach, even in the unsettling shower scene whose filming caused controversy earlier this year. Following up his success with The Usual Suspects, Singer here abandons that movie's brain-teasing, time-jumping format and delivers a straightforward exploration of two troubled people, one just beginning to uncage his personal demons and the other still trying, after decades, to suppress them.

"The emotional intensity of the material has not been compromised one bit."
Key to the success of that exploration are Apt Pupil's two lead performances. As the old man who is not as frail (mentally or physically) as he first appears and slowly rediscovers his own dark heart, McKellen is superb playing a man who's a villain not because of who he is, but because of who he once was. Matching him scene for scene is Renfro, who did promising work in The Client and Sleepers and truly comes into his own with this performance. No teen-idol pretty-boy, Renfro has always carried a darker shade behind his good looks, and it gets a full workout as Todd falls under the sway of Dussander's stories and then jumps off into his own pool of madness. The relationship between the two proceeds inexorably from a psychological game into something more symbiotic, and their twisted chemistry is spot-on throughout. The rest of the cast is equally fine-hell, this movie's so good that it successfully casts David Schwimmer in a straight role as Todd's guidance counselor, who comes to play a key part in the story. Once you get past the humorous shock of seeing the erstwhile Friend (with a mustache) as an authority figure, he's quite convincing.

Like many of the best horror films, Apt Pupil frightens not with the presentation of violence, but with the threat of it. One never knows just how far Todd, or Dussander, or the filmmakers are willing to go, and Singer's direction is so taut and suggestive that he's able to build suspense with a simple scene of Todd bouncing a basketball. Boyce's script ably condenses King's years-sprawling narrative into a story that covers only a number of months, and takes unexpected turns that keep the audience off guard while revealing new sides of the characters. As they did on Usual Suspects, cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel and composer John Ottman contribute plenty to the movie's atmosphere and mood.

"(Apt Pupil) a film that doesn't fall too comfortably into any one genre."
Apt Pupil is that old Hollywood bugaboo, the Tricky Sell, a film that doesn't fall too comfortably into any one genre and deals with subject matter that's hard to market to a mainstream audience. Certainly, the intelligence with which it has been made subverts the possibility of pitching it to the cheap-thrills crowd, and even selling it directly to Stephen King horror junkies wouldn't do it sufficient justice. But it's encouraging to see a major studio tackle the sort of challenging project that is being increasingly left to the independents these days, and with good luck and the right marketing, Apt Pupil will hopefully find the audience it richly deserves.

RATING KEY
Avoid like the plague 1
Wait for video cassette 2
Enjoyable 3
Highly recommended 4
A must see 5

Review by: Brian Westphal
This movie was kind of wacko. It's hard to believe that people could be so psycho, and I suppose that was the point. I think that this movie could have been a little more realistic on the actors parts. As a Steven King story, this one was probably (though I have not read it) screwed up like the rest. Overall it wasn't horrible, it was enjoyable, but not anything really redeeming.
I give this film: 3 stars

Review by: Zack DePew
Every other time someone has tried to make a movie out of a Steven King book it has sucked. This is no exception. The movie drags on like an opera festival with absolutely nothing to scare or even suspend the viewer. If you want to take a nap I advise you stay home and do it.
I give this film: 1 star

Review by: Jessica Hoel
I thought this movie to be a tad slow. The plot was pretty much weak, but the acting was ok. It had some levels of suspense at different parts which added a little bit of quality. I'd probably enjoy the book - its a Steven King - but I'm pretty sure they screwed it up in the movie. Its ok, but wait for rental. But hey, at least it had Joshua Jackson.
I give this film: 2 stars

Review: Apt Pupil

Starring Ian McKellen, Brad Renfro.
Written by Brandon Boyce from the story by Stephen King.
Directed by Bryan Singer.

Stephen King occasionally turns his hyperactive imagination to subject matter more serious than supernatural bunkum -- and when he does, it tends to yield good movies like Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption. To this list, now add Apt Pupil.

Todd Bowden is a fairly typical teenager except for a couple of important differences. One, he's extremely intelligent. Two, his interest in the Holocaust goes beyond cramming for the history final. When he thinks he recognizes a German-accented senior citizen in his small California town as a wanted war criminal, Todd investigates. His suspicions confirmed, Todd blackmails the geezer -- not for money, but for information, horrifying war stories, "the stuff they don't teach you at school."

Young Todd may not be a racist, but his personality does possess certain fascistic tendencies that make him fair game for the Third Reich mind-poison. (Of which, strangely, we get very little. For King, Nazism carries no more philosophical weight than serial killers -- you'd never know from this movie that Hitler was a politician.)

But it's Brad Renfro as Todd and especially the great Shakespearean actor Ian McKellen's Mystery Creep that make Apt Pupil as enjoyable as it is. (McKellen is becoming something of a specialist in filmic fascism, after the 1995 Richard III set in the '30s and last year's concentration-camp drama Bent.) There's also good support from Bruce Davison (who really does look like Renfro's dad), Elias Koteas and Joe Morton.

Apt Pupil is the first film directed by Bryan Singer since The Usual Suspects (one of my favorites of recent years). Singer interprets King in muted tones and glowering close-ups -- an odd combo, but one that makes for an effective nail-biter despite a minimum of gore. This is real-world suspense, with nary a gimmick or special effect in sight.

-- ALEX PATTERSON

MUSIC REVIEW-CINEMUSIC ONLINE
Apt Pupil
by John Ottman
Availability: In print. For sale at RCA Victor/BMG Classics.
RCA Victor, 1998.
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Review by Helen San
Rating: *****

Apt Pupil is an exceptional, emotionally penetrating score to a piercing examination of the darker shades of the human soul. Adapted from a Stephen King novella, the movie follows the disquieting journey of a teenage boy and his discovery of an old man whom he believes to be a former Nazi SS officer. The music takes this journey with us, beginning with the entrancing main theme in (track 2) "Main Titles." A flawless masterpiece, the theme depicts the fascination the boy has with the holocaust and its perpetrators, not only in the opening sequence as he pores over old war pictures, but also over the course of the story. Infused with an old world European flavor by nostalgic violins, both the theme and the score also capture an insidious military motif, with emphatic strings and percussions. There is also hearty choral background discretely blended in, adding a haunting human presence to the musical saga. This military motif is especially stunning in (track 19) "Extradition" where boys deliver a chillingly zealous chant.

The main theme is a thoroughly engrossing melody, expressed in colorful strokes across the entire score. Perhaps its best rendition is in (track 10) "It Never Goes Away," where a charged harmony of strings and piano take it to its heights. In (track 6) "I want to hear about it," it is filled with power, with a faint choral background that gives it a punch. Whenever it is performed with violins, such as in (track 15) "Cleaning Up" and (track 17) "A Question of Power," the theme immerses us in the the world of wartorn Europe.

Dark moods can be hard to score without sounding cliché or discordant, but Apt Pupil is strikingly fresh and euphonious from beginning to end. Even in the suspenseful, ambient cues, there is a rhythm and a purpose to the notes, an intuitive connection to the story that makes it an intriguing listen. It is hard to explain--sometimes dark underscoring captivates, and sometimes it bores. In Apt Pupil, it clicks like clockwork.

The dark underscore and the quieter cues are tantalizing. Startling brass, lurking piano, squeaky strings, and rumbling percussions all play pivotal roles in this story. Ottman also introduces a few stimulating ideas in these cues. In "Cat Bake," a comedic cartoonish sequence called "Cat Dance" is sharply contrasted with a suspenseful orchestral slam. "Rites of Passage" is an especially inventive percussive cue, sounding like millions of little ants or bugs crawling over a wooden floor. "The Chamber," "The Tables Turn," and "Curiosity" are other noteworthy examples of the alluring and spirited intrigue in these darker tracks.

An invigorating and inviting musical experience, Apt Pupil is a eloquent masterpiece from the first note to the last. With a polished theme and engaging orchestration, this is a paragon of what a suspense or dark dramatic score can achieve.
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Track Listing:
Total Time - 45:29

The track listing on the album is incorrect. It is missing track 8. Below is the corrected track listing.

1. Phoenix Pictures Presents (0:18)
2. Main Titles (3:25)
3. "I'm busy" (1:03)
4. The Chamber (1:38)
5. The Speech (2:48)
6. "I want to hear about it" (2:06)
7. Playing with Fire (1:54)
8. [Track title missing] (2:04)
9. Cat Bake* (1:37)
10. It Never Goes Away (2:14)
11. The Tables Turn (2:45)
12. Rite of Passage (1:51)
13. Curiosity (1:29)
14. An Ailing Heart (2:52)
15. Cleaning Up (1:04)
16. Recognition (2:54)
17. A Question of Power (2:13)
18. Fowl Play (1:09)
19. Extradition (4:38)
20. An Apt Pupil (0:50)
21. End Titles (2:36)
22. Das ist Berlin (1:38)

*"Cat Dance" portion composed by Larry Groupé
RCA Victor (09026-63319-2)