APT PUPIL (1998) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: BRYAN SINGER / SCREENPLAY: BRANDON BOYCE / STARRING: IAN MCKELLEN, BRAD RENFRO, JOSHUA JACKSON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
It’s not often we get the treat of Ian Mckellen in a villainous role, so there’s something immediately alluring about Apt Pupil. As some point you could have sold this as a legitimate psychological thriller, but now, it feels kitsch, exploitative, and every so slightly daft. Based on the short story by Stephen King, in which a paperboy (Brad Renfro) blackmails an old surviving Nazi (Ian McKellen) for first-hand accounts of the concentration camps. Sounds intriguing on paper, but is as problematic as you might expect in a modern light, even without considering it as a Bryan Singer film.
Any thrill which could once have been derived from the campery of McKellen as an ageing Nazi, slowly settling back into has terrifying old ways, is dashed by just how much of the film feels misguided or exploitative. Sadly, the preposterousness of an aged-up ‘90s McKellen growling in a thick German accent whilst trying to cram cats into his oven, just doesn’t entertain. Its not played as daft as it is. There’s some crazy tense sequences, most of them carried off by McKellen, who is great, but dances a thin line between ham and horror. One can’t help but wonder, looking back, what the intended tone was. Because, honestly, it feels sometimes like it should be the trashy B-Side to something like John Waters’ Serial Mum.
In terms of casting, it’s hard not to see Apt Pupil as exactly that: a suburbanised slice of ‘90s schlock. Problems don’t come from the cast, but some answers do. Bruce Davidson (Willard) turns up as Todd’s affluent father, whilst James Karen (The Return of the Living Dead, Mullholland Drive, and Poltergeist) plays his grandfather, and David Schwimmer a vaguely weird teacher. This particular band of stars adds a strange filigree of camp that might have otherwise remained more covert. Then there’s Michael Byrne, the evil Nazi Vogel from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, who appears as a kindly old concentration camp survivor. Byrne, a veteran villain and hard-ass, pretty much steals the whole show from McKellen in one heart-wrenching scene and does more for the films’ emotional appeal than any of its sordid sincerities around the nature of evil.
King’s story, and Brandon Boyce’s adaptation, are essentially both studies in evil. At points Apt Pupil seems to nail some greater truth about the evils of men being passed down and reinforced, whether through nostalgia, habit, or otherwise, but both have a leering fascination with the war which derides that dialogue. As opposed to being a We Need to Talk About Kevin style look at Todd’s obsession with violence and manipulation, it simply enjoys watching a young man empower himself with Nazi techniques. It also doesn’t help that Todd is grossly unlikeable.
Apt Pupil is a strange and misguided film by any stretch, but time hasn’t helped. Lawsuits around the nudity of underage boys on set paired with Singer’s contemporary criminal charges make some of the film an uncomfortable watch. There’s homoerotic undertones to the film in places they just shouldn’t be. Todd’s eventual blackmailing of a teacher, with fabricated accusations of abuse, feels particularly gross given the current state of Singer’s affairs.
As a psychological thriller, Apt Pupil has decent moments, it’s nicely put together, has a pretty great score from Michael Kamen but there’s just too much weirdness to get comfortably swept up.
