I saw this film on WABC a week or two ago and was very impressed by it. I'm surprised that it hasn't been picked up by Sundance or IFC because it would probably appeal to that type of audience more than a mainstream audience.The ending is pretty open-ended, which seems to annoy some people, but I think it's pretty clear that Whiley represents a negative aspect of American society that has no tolerance for anything or anyone different from the consensus norm.At the end, he's just going to move on to the next town and do the same thing he did to Brewster.I was reminded a bit of that Twilight Zone episode where the aliens make the electricity go off and on in various small town residents' houses, causing them to turn on each other and kill each other off, one by one.Things haven't changed that much since then.

This is the debut film from Bryan Singer, director of The Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil and X-Men. It is the story of a drifter who wanders into a sleepy town and wakes it up. The central character is played wonderfully by Ron Marquette. Singers directing is exceptional, even more so when you consider it's his first feature. Fans of his later work should definitely try and track down a copy of this rarely seen masterpiece.

I dug this film out at our local video store (no mean feat) and was highly rewarded. This film has been badly under rated, so what if you do not know the underlying motives of the character this makes the film more disturbing in my view. The central role is played excellently

I was prepared to really like this movie, seeing how it came from the same writer-director team as my very favorite movie, "The Usual Suspects." I did find the story of "Public Access" interesting, and Ron Marquette, who played Whiley, was quite talented. He did a great job of evoking a strangely menacing air from an outwardly clean cut character. (I was sorry to read that Marquette killed himself after making the movie). The score complemented Marquette's acting and contributed a great deal to the eerie atmosphere of the film. In fact the score was probably the movie's most effective aspect.Unfortunately, "Public Access" falls apart at the end (very much unlike "Suspects," which brilliantly brings everything together at the end). We never learn why Whiley is trying to bring down the town by aiding the mayor, and we find out even less about where Whiley comes from and where he is going. In an interview, director Bryan Singer has claimed that the character's motives are not important, but I beg to differ. It was impossible for me to feel anything about the character when he is portrayed as nothing more than an enigma.Still, if you are as big a fan of "Suspects" as I am it might be worth renting "Public Access" to see where some of the techniques used in the later movie came from. For example, all of the following are present in both Singer-McQuarrie productions: a jumbled voiceover with many people talking at once, a montage of shots of key characters, ominous music and an overall darkness of tone. Perhaps the ending of "Public Access" left the two filmmakers feeling as empty as I felt, and set out to blow the audience away with the ending of their next movie.Had the characters been somewhat more developed and explained and had the ending brought real closure to the story, "Public Access" could have been a very good film. As it stands, I found it rather mediocre, but not without certain merits.