Charlie Bartlett

If you're pining for a modern John Hughes type teen comedy (such as Breakfast Club or Ferris Bueller's Day Off), then Charlie Bartlett would certainly fit the bill. It's like an anti-American Pie. The teens are not obsessed with sex, it has heart and even a few dramatic elements. It's not as funny as American Pie type movies but that's not the point. Charlie Bartlett is basically a good-hearted very smart rich kid expelled from all his previous private schools who wants to be popular and becomes a kind of psychiatrist for his fellow classmates in a "normal" public high school. The actor portraying him did a remarkable job showing his eccentricities while keeping him likable and sweet despite his less than legal actions. I'm not quite sure how likely such a character would be in real life but he's certainly interesting. I also enjoyed the other teens portrayed (most being two-dimensional instead of one-dimensional caricatures) and wish there had been more washroom confessionals. Robert Downey Jr is once again wonderful as a loving father and tormented principal who's not completely "evil" as in most movies of this type. I liked the understated uncomplicated romantic aspect and it kind of made me wish for first love again although I've seen this done better in several other movies. Overall, it's a charming teen movie, not overtly real-life melodramatic, nor overtly over-the-top ridiculous, as we rarely see in this cynical 21st century. It's a good rental and a decent purchase if you like high school dramatic comedies. Rating: 7 out of 10

I saw this in a members' preview at the wonderful Bryn Mawr Film Institute. I truly enjoyed this movie. It was smart, hilarious, well-acted (especially Downey, Yelchin, and Davis), and well-scripted. I definitely recommend it, but not with the type of superlatives that other commenters have used here. If my regard for this movie fades over the coming days, it will be in part because it's so easy to write a "recipe" for the film: it's 3 parts Pump Up the Volume, 1 part Rushmore, a generous dollop of closure, and enough cuteness and sweetness to smooth all the potential edginess out of the subject matter. Unfortunately, it's the sweetness that renders this movie inferior to both of those earlier movies (which are excellent). Once I was struck by the Pump Up the Volume comparison, I couldn't shake it, and I kept thinking that, although it has not aged wonderfully, Pump Up the Volume was the more honest and hard-hitting movie, and Rushmore was simply better.

After seeing Charlie Bartlett tonight in a Pre-Screening at my university, and after a Q&A with the director I am in cloud 9. This film is incredible, everything about it worked. The screenplay was genius, as well as the Direction. The acting could not have been better, and I feel that this film has allowed Anton Yelchin to join the ranks with Ellen Page and Paul Dano. Naturally when I first saw the trailer, I thought to myself that it was just going to be another teen movie. Nothing special, then something intrigued me. This was the fact that it was rated R. Needless to say I was completely blown away. First, the script was just incredible, and what surprised me was that it was a very heavy movie. It throws your emotions around, from hysterical laughter, to momentary depression. This was only accentuated by the Actors that performed in it. The first impression I got in terms of acting was how well Robert Downey Jr. and Kat Dennings played off of each other. These too make a perfect father daughter paring from a broken home. They love each other, however they have their problems. The next parent child relationship we are introduced to is Hope Davis and Anton Yelchin, this again is another look on family life in broken homes. But with out question Anton Yelchin and Robert Downey Jr. stole the show. There performance was the best I have seen, from Robert Downey Jr.’s other films to Anton Yelchin’s first huge film. This will no doubt put him in the ranks of the other phenomenal teen actors that seem to be arising from the wood work. This film was fantastic from the acting, to the music, to the editing, to the screenplay. It deals with many difficult topics, that will no doubt cause much controversy. Much like Juno did with its topics of sex and teen pregnancy, this film has a great deal of difficult content. Understand the message being set in front of you, and don’t focus specifically on the content, it is much more then what you see. Make this movie huge! The director was incredibly modest, and seems to be incredibly underestimating his work, see it, tell everyone about it. This is a gem that isn’t going to fade away soon.

This is the story: Charlie Bartlett, Anton Yelchin, is expelled from private school, and is sent to the public school by his rich Mom. He has high school outsider adventures until he sets himself up as an amateur psychiatrist with a illicit pharmacy, and then everyone loves him including the principal's daughter, Susan, played by Kat Dennings. The principal, played by Robert Downey Jr, has his own mental health issues, and this is an interesting plot twist, rather like Ferris Bueller's Day Off. There are engaging performances from Anton Yelchin and Robert Downey Jr. They are fun to watch. I would like to see more from Anton. Kat Dennings and Hope Davis give interesting performances, but their characters are not as rich. The first half of the movie where Charlie has problems and needs to solve them is far more interesting than when he is solving other people's problems. I did like the Kip Crombwell suicide episode. This movie could have used some punched up dialog. It makes me appreciate Diablo Cody's Juno. The end was embarrassingly sappy. I almost closed my eyes.

Charlie Bartlett is a comedy with a message. Some may say that's an oxymoron. But Jon Poll, directing from a Gustin Nash script, takes on the task and turns in a hybrid of a film that is so incredibly engaging you'll wonder why few filmmakers take on such a challenge. The audience was so loud and boisterous at the World Premiere screening at the Tribeca Film Festival that it sent the laugh meter off the scale. Anton Yelchin is Charlie Bartlett, a kid born with a silver spoon in his mouth and an enterprising, albeit mischievous, brain. His antics get him kicked out of one private school after another. But his clever and earnest sincerity is bound to hit the target sooner or later and it does when he is thrown to the public school wolves. The scheme he invents to endear himself to the student body is nothing short of genius, and his performance fits the bill. Yelchin has made a name for himself playing the smart, sensitive, and innocent tortured kid. Here he gets the chance to stretch his acting chops in a completely different direction. He's confident and anything but vulnerable. The wide range of emotions and the talents he shows here are unsurpassed. He sings, he dances, he plays piano, he does physical comedy and has fight scenes and romantic scenes and just about everything that could be thrown at him. And he looks to be so thoroughly enjoying it, which comes across on screen and proves to be so central to the film. After all, to enjoy a film one must identify somewhat with the protagonist, or at least like him, and Anton does that better than many actors twice his age. Hope Davis is a riot as his not-quite-all-there mother. It's easy to see the source of Charlie's quirkiness. The relationship between mother and son is playful and mischievous, the kind of "mom as best friend" scenario which often results in tragedy. Here it's played just for laughs, and it works. She is everymom - with a twist of lemon. Tyler Hilton is perfectly cast as the bully who we know from the start is destined to soften up somewhere along the way. That's what movie bullies do. But he brings an especially charming quality to the role which plays perfectly against Charlie's leanings toward the dark side. It's a delicate balance but Yelchin and Hilton make it work. Robert Downey Jr. is ironically cast as the substance-addled principal who also happens to be the father of Charlie's love interest. One has to wonder whether Principal Gardner or Downey is speaking in some of the more poignant scenes about alcohol and drugs. It's chilling. Perhaps for that reason alone he is a standout here. Kat Dennings plays the girl who is out to win Charlie's heart. The dynamic with Downey and Yelchin is a natural source of drama. This is the film's most heartfelt storyline, and Dennings is admirably up to the task. At times it all feels so real, and it's no wonder -- writer Gustin Nash actually continued to write scenes and dialogue specifically for those actors after the film got underway and it shows. Charlie Bartlett has the look and feel of a studio film, which should help it find an audience. The subject matter demands an R rating, if only for its content. But it's a film kids need to see. The message is squarely aimed at teens, even younger ones, and parents need to take heed. In the guise of a comedy, a good one at that, Charlie Bartlett has something meaningful to say about the excuses we use to justify our behavior and the chemical coping methods so many of us cling to. And it's d*mn funny.

This has the potential to be a clever, fun movie. There're are a lot of things going on that point out the absurdity of modern teenage life, and the pressures we put kids under so that they achieve our goals. However, the adults are morons. Rich, successful people are complete fools. Somehow in America you stay poor if you are ugly, but if you are an imbecile with a size 2 dress, you live in a 5,000 sq ft house with a staff of 15 (never seen) who do all the chores. You don't actually learn anything, so you can't pick up on normal social clues that everyone else does - Charlie, for example, gets beaten up in school because he doesn't pick up that a tough guy and his sycophant in the high school bathroom are people to avoid. Instead, he gets beaten up all day long. And - ha ha, this is so funny - the school principal (Robert Downey) is disconnected to the kids in the school, so they completely disrespect him *and* he doesn't know how badly he is functioning. But he's rich, too, and lives in a 4,000 sq foot house with a staff of 10 (never seen) who do all the chores. The high school is composed of students who are just about on the lowest margin of functionality and awareness. Not a single one of them is destined to be successful serving fries at a McDonalds, let alone doing anything positive. But they are all on drugs - ha ha! - and they barely can keep themselves from disrobing and "making out" (euphemism for what all high school kids do all the time in Hollywood high schools). They openly smoke cigarettes and dope in school, and Charlie distributes high powered drugs (Ritalin & others) in school. All high schools are like this, of course. Not a single kid has a healthy relationship with any adult, and not any adult has a rational frame of mind. Ha ha. You just can't get enough of this. And - ha ha - Charlie can just read up medical books and - poof! - he is smart enough to prescribe drugs *just like a real doctor!* And he does. *** SPOILER*** Charlie's family has a psychiatrist on-call, and he's bamboozled the Dr. (who went to medical school and psychiatry school but somehow was never warned about manipulative kids) who lets Charlie describe fake symptoms and then prescribes drugs for Charlie, who then sells/distributes the drugs in school. Ha ha. This is so funny. I gave it a three because it had some good moments - but the cruft around the good is just so awful. This should have been caught in the editing stage. The editors should have been more on the ball. They could have rescued this film. Instead, the producers must have intervened, saying "We don't care if this is a failure of a movie. We're on a schedule." Lame movie. Lame script. Some good acting. (Charlie actuall does some good stuff.)

'Charlie Bartlett,' the story of a wealthy teen who bounces from posh private school to normal public school, is one that should go down as a requisite for all high school students to view. Along with films like Ferris Bueller, Breakfast Club, Fast Times, and Dazed & Confused, 'Charlie Bartlett' shows a great (though sometimes exaggerated) view of high school life and the struggles that come with it. Great performances by the lead ensemble and a fantastic job by first time director Jon Poll and first time writer Gustin Nash help to make this the best high school film of the decade. 9/10.

Charlie Bartlett is a good movie, nothing spectacular but it fulfilled my expectations very well. It is a very well written comedy with the perfect amount of drama. It is funny but not because its full of jokes or gags, the humor of this movie is a consequence of the situations in it. The plot about a wealthy teen (Yelchin) goes to a new public high school and ingratiates himself into its social fabric by using his charm to become the school's resident "psychiatrist" is good, its like a glimpse of how teenagers live nowadays. The cast composed entirely by young actors with the exception of Downey Jr. is good and they acted well. Robert Downey was good, Anton Yelchin in the role of Charlie, his performance was great. He was a excellent complement for Downey Jr. The rest of the cast like Kat Dennings and Hope Davis were a great support for the movie. In conclusion, this is an entertaining movie that is worthy just to watch Downey Jr. and Yelchin acting together.

'Charlie Bartlett' follows 17 year old rich boy loner, Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yechlin). He doesn't have any friends and gets kicked out of numerous private schools. He is addicted to trouble and challenging authority. The main point behind that is that his father was arrested for tax evasion, sending his mother into a manically depressed state. Charlie was then forced to take care for his mother thus having no one to look after himself, he was an adult before he even became a teenager. You later find out that he hates his father for this, stealing his childhood. Charlie is kicked out of his last private school, the reason this time is for making fake ID's, he is then sent to a public school. Right when he arrives, you see the typical clicks in an all too fake montage, the pot heads, skaters, jocks and outcasts. He is greeted by no one, except a mentally unstable mongoloid named, Len Arbuckle. He becomes friends with Len and people start to notice that Charlie is not like them. You are then exposed to other characters, Principal Gardnes (Robert Downey Jr.), his daughter Susan (Kat Dennings) and the school bully Murphy Bivens (Tyler Hilton). Charlie runs with an unusual crowd, that is for sure. Next in the story is a loner named Kip Crombwell (Mark Rendall) who asks Charlie if he can get him prescription drugs after a fiasco involving a school dance and Ritalin. Charlie of course agrees, all he really cares about is becoming popular and fitting in for once. The word then gets out about this little drug cartel Charlie has in his power. He and Murphy start to to get medication for all the kids at the school. Charlie runs a little psychiatrist office out of one of the boys' bathrooms. He asks the kids their problems, then recites them to his own psychiatrist thus getting the drugs. The story is good, it lacks certain qualities that just don't seem believable, but then again this is a high school comedy, those traits aren't required. Anton Yechlin is great as Charlie Bartlett, it shows that this young kid has potential. I envisioned the film to be this dark teen comedy, but it turned into a quirky film about the high school body and drug abuse. The two surprisingly worked damn well together. Hope Davis plays Charlie's neurotic mother. Her performance is the best in the film. She is so estranged from reality by her own medication that she seems like Charlie's daughter. She plays with the same quirkiness Kim Darby did as John Cusack's mother in the film 'Better Off Dead...'. The other adult in the film is Robert Downey Jr. He plays an alcoholic school principal. He also is a fan of boats. Look for some great scenes with him and Yechlin in the end of the movie. All in all this a great representation of what high school is like for certain kids in their certain clicks, it tackles these topics with witty dialog and humor. For the most part it works, but sometimes in the few serious scenes, the shouldn't have flipped the humor switch back on so fast. See this movie Friday, it's the first great movie of the year. MY RATING: 8.0/10.0

The transitional age we all suffered through were our formative years, during High School. This is where you learn what you believe is wrong and what you didn't believed is even more wrong. It's at this very trying time, one learns in order to survive, one must adapt, ignore the obvious and embrace the impossible. This film called " Charlie Bartlett " deals with all those issues and more. It begins with young Charlie (Anton Yelchin) a teen who dreams of becoming the most popular boy in school. The reality is definitely the opposite. Although rich and spoiled by his dotting mother, Charlie who has caused so much trouble in private schools, has been transferred to public education. Here he begins by being out of place, out of step and out of touch. Between becoming a bully's (Murphey Bivens) daily punching bag and dreaming of popularity, his efforts only land him in the arms of a shrink who proscribes a plethora of pharmaceutical drugs. Realizing their true value with the student body, he not only starts selling drugs, but becomes a peer confident. The change of life brings many rewards, and growing popularity but unfortunately closer to the troubled Principal (Robert Downey Jr.) and his rebellious daughter (Kat Dennings). All the characters have issues and our hero makes use of his substantial gifts of persuasion. The movie is surprisingly interesting and should not be underrated. It's a fun film and one which holds the attention of multi generational audiences. Recommended to anyone with an open mind. ***