Apt Pupil

Bryan Singer directed this Brandon Boyce adaptation of Stephen King's novella about teenager Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro), who discovers Nazi war criminal Kurt Dussander (Ian McKellen) living in his California hometown. Fascinated with Dussender's wartime atrocities, Bowden blackmails the former ...more

The attempt to turn one of novelist Stephen King's most disturbing stories into a feature film is a chilling character study from director Bryan Singer. While it's an oft-quoted maxim that "the book is always better than the movie," this isn't always true (Jaws (1976) and The Godfather (1972) are superb exceptions). However, Apt Pupil reinforces that stereotype by dropping much of the printed page's development of lead character Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) as a big man on campus. Singer's film ...more