Indignation

Indignation (2016) is James Schamus' drama from the Philip Roth novel, available to watch online on iFILM. The year is 1951. Marcus Messner, the son of a kosher butcher in Newark, heads off to a quiet Ohio college — partly to study, partly to stay clear of the draft pulling young men into Korea.

Logan Lerman plays Marcus as proud and stubborn, a young man who simply will not bend to rules he finds absurd. He falls for Olivia (Sarah Gadon), a beautiful and fragile classmate, and clashes with the dean over mandatory chapel attendance, talking himself deeper into trouble with every refusal to back down. The film's centerpiece is a long, circling argument between Lerman and Tracy Letts in the dean's office — pure intellectual tension, not a single gunshot in sight.

This marked the directing debut of Schamus, longtime screenwriter for Ang Lee, and ranks among the most faithful Roth adaptations ever filmed. It's chamber-sized, literary and quietly devastating, charting how a boy's principles curdle into fate. Best suited to viewers who prize sharp dialogue over action and admire Roth's prose. Stream Indignation (2016) online on iFILM.