Unrated. Unrated because to give it half stars would be lying. In a sense, Apt Pupil knocks it out of the park. Ian McKellen lays down an unpredictable, nearly flawless performance, It’s deeply atmospheric and wonderfully 90s in its overlay shots and color grading, and it’s a truly tense, often chilling psychological thriller. So thrilling I'm still giving it the “Best Ending” tag even though I'm leaving it unrated. This film is a reminder that old habits of American society, like the ones that create genocidal monsters, do in fact linger. A testament incredibly important today. So why am I leaving it unrated? I am leaving it unrated because it is a pedophilic power fantasy handcrafted by Bryan Singer, a man who tormented and molested young boys for his entire career. Now I have never read Stephen King’s original novella (despite being an avid fan of his work), and have no idea how much of this film is truly Bryan Singer putting in his own twist on it, but there is no doubt in my mind that he made this film about the shifting of power dynamics in a relationship filled with secrets between a young boy and an old man with the intentions of contorting the story to his own, twisted and vile view of human psyche. What more proves this is the layers upon layers of allegations that took place on the SET of THIS FILM. He allegedly pressured teenage extras into filming a shower scene completely nude, and even more damning, allegedly sexually assaulted a 13 year old on this films set. It is baked in to the fabric of this film, and for that it is completely unrate-able.
Unrated. Unrated because to give it half stars would be lying. In a sense, Apt Pupil knocks it out of the park. Ian McKellen lays down an unpredictable, nearly flawless performance, It’s deeply atmospheric and wonderfully 90s in its overlay shots and color grading, and it’s a truly tense, often chilling psychological thriller. So thrilling I'm still giving it the “Best Ending” tag even though I'm leaving it unrated. This film is a reminder that old habits of American society, like the ones that create genocidal monsters, do in fact linger. A testament incredibly important today. So why am I leaving it unrated? I am leaving it unrated because it is a pedophilic power fantasy handcrafted by Bryan Singer, a man who tormented and molested young boys for his entire career. Now I have never read Stephen King’s original novella (despite being an avid fan of his work), and have no idea how much of this film is truly Bryan Singer putting in his own twist on it, but there is no doubt in my mind that he made this film about the shifting of power dynamics in a relationship filled with secrets between a young boy and an old man with the intentions of contorting the story to his own, twisted and vile view of human psyche. What more proves this is the layers upon layers of allegations that took place on the SET of THIS FILM. He allegedly pressured teenage extras into filming a shower scene completely nude, and even more damning, allegedly sexually assaulted a 13 year old on this films set. It is baked in to the fabric of this film, and for that it is completely unrate-able.
