Word: renfro
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...intriguing, are here sickening. The ethics of making Dussander (a former SS officer) the interesting character and his strident accusers the bland and vapid ones are, of course, also questionable. This said, Ian McKellan may be given credit for giving the masterful performance one expects of him. Todd Renfro's acting (as the boy who discovers Dussander) is generally bland and flat, more appropriate to a sitcom, or an after-school special, than the thriller that is being attempted here. John T. Maier...
...wizardry can be poured into a screen character. In Apt Pupil he is, in director Bryan Singer's phrase, "an old, alcoholic, sitcom-watching Nazi" hiding in California anonymity 40 years after the war and amused to perform a facsimile of his old mischief on a curious teenager (Brad Renfro). As Whale in Bill Condon's film, McKellen is sunset charm incarnate, a gay man melting inside his decaying body for the gross, cheerful fellow (Brendan Fraser) who works in the garden. It's Chekhov in lavender...
...worked hard to ensure that his titled status would not cow his colleagues. "I mean, hell, going to work with a damn knight!" says Renfro, 16. "I didn't know what to expect. But he's a genuine guy, easygoing, totally cool." Fraser, 29, who calls McKellen "the best-kept secret in the film world," was surprised at Sir Ian's bounding vim. "He eats everything he wants and has the energy of a 20-year-old." McKellen was robust enough to endure eight hours as a corpse in a pool, wearing a rubber wetsuit under a heavy tweed outfit...
...PUPIL Directed by Brian Singer Written by Brandon Boyce Starring Ian McKellen, Brad Renfro...
This said, Mr. McKellan may be given credit for giving the masterful performance one expects of him. McKellan takes a character whom the audience almost instinctively rejects and makes him immensely intriguing, even appealing. Of course, Dussander also becomes appealing to his counterpart, Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro), a high school student who begins the movie diligently researching the Holocaust. Todd in fact is the one who discovers that old Mr. Dussander is a former S.S. guard, the discovery that sets the movie off on its course of alternating revelation and deceit. Renfro's acting is generally bland and flat, more...