Charlie Bartlett

Last night I saw the movie Charlie Bartlett, starring Anton Yelchin, Robert Downy, Jr., Hope Davis, and the practically the entire cast of DeGrassi: The Next Generation (good news for those of you cult followers who yearn to see Jimmy out of his wheelchair). In the movie, rich kid misfit Charlie Bartlett (Yelchin) gets kicked out of private school and goes to public school, where he at first has some trouble fitting in. However, he soon finds his niche as a boys' bathroom psychologist/prescription drug dealer and quickly becomes the most popular kid in school.

The movie, despite relying a little too heavily on certain high school cliches (the macho football player, the slutty cheerleader, the bully tough guy, the suicidal emo kid, the kindhearted special needs kid, the goth and/or hippie art students, etc), is actually a great heartwarming comedy. It's definitely a feel good movie that borders on too much optimism, but it has some great funny lines and some pleasantly cynical characters to diffuse all the the warm fuzzies before you start to feel your gag reflex kicking in (actually there's a rather intense scene with Robert Downy, Jr., involving a bottle of whisky, a gun and a remote control boat). Downy was definitely the best performance in the movie as the jaded alcoholic principal/father and I think I liked his character the best, as well.

The movie was directed by Jon Poll, who has done most of his work in the film industry as an editor until recently. I have to say, I was a little surprised that he was an editor before this directorial debut because at the beginning of the movie the pacing is very weird and off. One of my friends speculated that it's a nod to Harold & Maude, which she said also has weird pacing (I've never seen it but apparently a lot of things in this movie were an homage to Harold & Maude). However, the weird pacing works itself out relatively quickly, and the rest of the movie is much better. I was also surprised that Jon Poll was an editor because he spoke before and after the screening of the film and I don't think I've ever met an editor who talks that much. While his anecdotes about how Tyler Hilton (who plays bully/punk Murphy Bennett) and Megan Park (who plays slutty but misunderstood cheerleader Whitney Drummond) are now dating in real life (you'll understand why this is cute when you see the movie) were entertaining, there were times when I wished it didn't take him 20 minutes to answer questions in very roundabout ways.

Before I start rambling like Jon Poll though, I will finish by concluding that Charlie Bartlett is a quirky feel good comedy about the turbulent lives of teenagers. It comes out February 22nd and I recommend you go see it.

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