Apt Pupil **** (1998, Ian McKellen, Brad Renfro, Joshua Jackson) – Classic Movie Review 717

The 16-year-old Brad Renfro stars as teenager Todd Bowden, who suspects his neighbour Arthur Denker (played by Ian McKellen) of being a Nazi war criminal called Kurt Dussander. The lad starts a blackmail campaign against the old man in director Bryan Singer’s expertly sinister 1998 chiller, adapted by screenwriter Brandon Boyce from Stephen King’s novella.

Todd offers Kurt a deal. He will not go to the authorities if the old guy tells him stories of the concentration camps in World War Two. Kurt agrees and they meet regularly for stories. But this starts to affect the lad’s personality.

In his first film since The Usual Suspects in 1995, Singer keeps the atmosphere thoroughly tense, and suitably spooky and eerie, moving swiftly along and ensuring an exciting climax. And all the acting is top rate, with young Renfro winningly holding the screen even in the face of McKellen’s showboating.

Also in the cast are Elias Koteas, David Schwimmer, Mickey Cottrell, Michael Reid MacKay, Marjorie Lovett, David Cooley, Blake Anthony Tibbetts, Heather McComb, Katherine Malone, Grace Sinden, Anthony Moore, Kevin Spirtas, Michael Byrne, Danna Dennis, Jan Triska, Joe Morton, Michael Artura, Donna Marie Brown, Mark Flythe, Warren Wilson, Jill Harris, Norbert D Singer, Mildred Singer and Mary Ottman.

Singer employed McKellen and Bruce Davison again on the X-Men films, X-Men (2000) and X-Men 2 (2003) .

Apt Pupil runs 111 minutes but the cut DVD version runs 106 minutes.

Tragically, the troubled Brad Renfro died of a heroin overdose on January 15  2008, aged only 25. After a brilliant start with The Client (1994), The Cure (1995), Tom and Huck (1995), Sleepers (1996) and Apt Pupil (1998), Renfro suffered addiction problems in his teens and early 20s, which led to several police arrests and convictions for drugs possession and a faltering movie career.

http://derekwinnert.com/the-usual-suspects-classic-film-review-81/

http://derekwinnert.com/the-client-classic-film-review-653/

http://derekwinnert.com/sleepers-classic-film-review-695/

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 717 derekwinnert.com