Charlie Bartlett

Films about high school have been a mainstay in the halls of cinema for as long as it's been able to be captured on film. From American Graffiti to American Pie, these movies generally represent the way we wish high school could've been for us ideally, in a comedic background. Then there are the high school "issue" movies like Pump Up the Volume and Heathers that aim for the societal issue. Charlie Bartlett steps up to the plate with the intent to have its cake and eat it too by cramming a comedy with a message.

The most salvageable thing about Charlie Bartlett are the actors. Grade-A performances are shelled out by Robert Downey, Jr. (of course,) Hope Davis, Anton Yelchin (Hearts in Atlantis) and Kat Dennings (40 Year Old Virgin.) Yelchin especially, playing the neurotic outcast, Ferris Bueller clone that becomes the high school's impromptu bathroom therapist, I can tell this kid has a healthy career ahead of him. Hope Davis as the prescription drug addled mother was wonderful and of course RD Jr. never lets me down. The dialog is witty and convincing, charming and alarmingly funny, though this is where the problems begin.

Charlie Bartlett is a film that suffers from cinematic schizophrenia. I assume in an attempt to emulate a certain kind of high school movie, it decided to emulate ALL of them. There are scenes that I was sure I'd viewed before, and then I realized that I had. I'd like to say that this is all homage, but I can only picture the writer sitting down at his computer after enduring a 48 hour educational system movie marathon, becoming the proverbial Victor Frankenstein of the screenwriting trade. A little bit of Mean Girls meets a little bit of Thumbsucker meets a little bit of Rushmore thrown in for good measure. All in all, there was the central character arc involving Charlie, but then that was diluted with about ten other thematic elements. It seemed that the movie stumbled over all of these elements in an attempt to find its own footing and make its own point, but in the end it outstayed its welcome and ran about thirty minutes too long. Then in a freak occurrence of meta-screenwriting, the movie seemed to notice its unnecessary longevity and ended so abruptly that it felt as if nothing was actually resolved. Also, my biggest beef was with a scene late in the second act that would've held a fair amount of gravity had it not been abruptly killed by a raucous punk song and a rather pointless riot.

Now don't get me wrong. Charlie Bartlett is not a bad movie. It's a fair movie with a problematic script that was overshadowed by the talent of the actors involved, which is similar to the stance I have on Juno. I'd definitely recommend seeing this movie, but here's a list of movies to see first.

Rushmore
Thumbsucker
Heathers
Pump Up the Volume
The TV series Freaks & Geeks
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Mean Girls
The Chumscrubber
Sixteen Candles
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Grosse Pointe Blank (whatever, there's a high school in it…)