I want to hear about it... everything they're afraid to show us in school.
Sixteen-year-old high school student Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) has uncovered a deadly secret. Far from suspicion, Nazi war criminal Kurt Dussander (Ian McKellan) has been quietly living in Todd's hometown. Fascinated with the atrocities Dussander committed during the war, Todd begins to blackmail him. In exchange for the teenager's silence, Dussander must reveal his evil past. The two begin a relationship that spirals out of control, producing terrifying results.
Special Agent Matti
Seig heil!
If you didn't know anything about the Jews in World War II, you will after watching this film. It is brilliant. Nazis in your own backyard. Nazis in your own mind.
Ian's Kurt is awesome: a weird old man, a Nazi, a charming grandfather, a psychopath, a mind-fucker. Brad's Todd is brilliant: beautiful, sweet, charming, innocent, inquisitive, arrogant, violent, a psychopath, a mind-fucker. See any similarities? These two actors make their characters fuck each other so slowly, so stealthily, so passionately, so violently that they can't help but be damaged by it. It's a scary, scary thing to watch, but there's no way you can stop yourself. You are like a fly that's caught in a web watching two spiders deciding which one is going to eat you.
I was mind-fucked to the point of orgasm and beyond by Apt pupil.
In short: even if you're not into war films or Jew films or suburban dramas, this film is one worth watching. It is dark, sly, frightening and evil. Watch it or be damned.
MA 15+ (Medium level violence, adult themes)
107 minutes (1:47 hours)
Film: 18 August 1999