If Apt Pupil had any other name on it for a director, the reaction to it would simply be "Wow! That's an incredibly dark, fucked up, well made, provocative psychological thriller." But because the director is Bryan Singer, it can't not also read as a screaming confession of his crimes.
The film manages to take out some of the most unseemly elements of King's story but that somehow only serves to make it even darker and meaner. In particular, they take an ending that was originally one of great physical violence and they turn it into one of great psychological violence and it is so much more chilling.
The whole movie is filled with subtext that involves Bryan Singer telling on himself. There's a scene with high school boys in the gym showers and they are definitely nude. No full frontal, but definitely the rest of it. There's Renfro's guidance counselor who may or may not be a pedophile with eyes for Renfro (it's kept ambiguous) played by David Schwimmer. This is possibly the best use of David Schwimmer in anything. He's genuinely good as a total loser drip and also possibly a creep. And there's a weird, creepy homoeroticism between Renfro and McKellan's characters. It's one tell after another from Singer.
It's like watching The Professional now that we know what we know about Luc Besson. Or Polanski and the John Huston character in Chinatown. And that was after Polanski's trial so everybody knew about him and he still put that shit in there. These guys are like The Riddler. They're compelled to leave behind evidence of their crimes.
On its own, Apt Pupil is a very well made thriller. But all the metatextual narrative around the movie makes it a bizarrely compelling watch with two incredible performances from Renfro and McKellen anchoring the whole thing.
Given how Ricky Schroeder turned out as an adult, I wonder if we’d be making similar metatextual analyses of that earlier production of Apt Pupil had it been completed.
I wasn’t aware of the behind the scenes incident on Singer’s film until he was publicly accused in 2014. I knew Singer was gay, and picked up on the homoerotic subtext, but I feel like going back to it now would be akin to watching literally any Victor Salva film. Another filmmaker who can’t help but tell on himself.
I met Brad Renfro at a film festival, in the buffet line of all places. He was so playful and nice; we traded bad Australian accents as we went through a buffet line at the awards brunch where he was being honored. Made it that much harder to take the news of his passing a couple years later.
If Apt Pupil had any other name on it for a director, the reaction to it would simply be "Wow! That's an incredibly dark, fucked up, well made, provocative psychological thriller." But because the director is Bryan Singer, it can't not also read as a screaming confession of his crimes.
The film manages to take out some of the most unseemly elements of King's story but that somehow only serves to make it even darker and meaner. In particular, they take an ending that was originally one of great physical violence and they turn it into one of great psychological violence and it is so much more chilling.
The whole movie is filled with subtext that involves Bryan Singer telling on himself. There's a scene with high school boys in the gym showers and they are definitely nude. No full frontal, but definitely the rest of it. There's Renfro's guidance counselor who may or may not be a pedophile with eyes for Renfro (it's kept ambiguous) played by David Schwimmer. This is possibly the best use of David Schwimmer in anything. He's genuinely good as a total loser drip and also possibly a creep. And there's a weird, creepy homoeroticism between Renfro and McKellan's characters. It's one tell after another from Singer.
It's like watching The Professional now that we know what we know about Luc Besson. Or Polanski and the John Huston character in Chinatown. And that was after Polanski's trial so everybody knew about him and he still put that shit in there. These guys are like The Riddler. They're compelled to leave behind evidence of their crimes.
On its own, Apt Pupil is a very well made thriller. But all the metatextual narrative around the movie makes it a bizarrely compelling watch with two incredible performances from Renfro and McKellen anchoring the whole thing.
Given how Ricky Schroeder turned out as an adult, I wonder if we’d be making similar metatextual analyses of that earlier production of Apt Pupil had it been completed.
I wasn’t aware of the behind the scenes incident on Singer’s film until he was publicly accused in 2014. I knew Singer was gay, and picked up on the homoerotic subtext, but I feel like going back to it now would be akin to watching literally any Victor Salva film. Another filmmaker who can’t help but tell on himself.
On a lighter note, Ray Parker Jr wrote a great rejected Apt Pupil theme song!
https://youtu.be/GxjNOv5QPzM?si=z9uUgWqJD8Lmqknq
Man, just read Different Seasons for the first time recently and Apt Pupil is a ROUGH read. Not bad, but rough.
yeah, it's one of the few King novels or novellas I've read. I don't remember much about it beyond it being predictably grim.
I met Brad Renfro at a film festival, in the buffet line of all places. He was so playful and nice; we traded bad Australian accents as we went through a buffet line at the awards brunch where he was being honored. Made it that much harder to take the news of his passing a couple years later.