Charlie Bartlett is a 2007 American comedy drama film directed by Jon Poll. The screenplay by Gustin Nash focuses on a teenager who begins to dispense therapeutic advice and prescription drugs to the student body at his new high school in order to become popular.
The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on May 1, 2007 and was shown at the Cannes Film Market, the Maui Film Festival, and the Cambridge Film Festival before going into theatrical release in the United States and Canada on February 22, 2008.
Plot
The son of a depressed but doting mother and a father who is serving time for tax evasion, wealthy teenager Charlie Bartlett enrolls in a public high school run by embittered alcoholic Principal Nathan Gardner after being expelled from several private academies for various infractions. Unable to fit in with most of his fellow students, Charlie forms an alliance with school bully Murphy Bivens and offers him half the proceeds from the sale of a variety of prescription drugs Charlie obtains by feigning physical and emotional symptoms during sessions with different psychiatrists. Before long, his natural charm and likability positions him as the school's resident therapist, who offers advice within the confines of the boys' bathroom. Charlie's social life noticably improves as he gains the confidence and admiration of the student body and begins to date the principal's rebellious daughter Susan. Complications arise when seriously depressed Kip Crombwell attempts suicide by swallowing a handful of sedatives provided by Charlie, who finds his position in serious jeopardy when he comes under the scrutiny of both Principal Gardner and Superintendent Sedgwick.
Production
The film was shot on location in Toronto as well as at Parkwood Estate in Oshawa, Ontario and Trafalgar Castle School in Whitby, Ontario.
The soundtrack includes "Strobe," "New Clouds, Not Clouds," "Voodoo," ""Day OK," and "Close to Midnight" by Spiral Beach; "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" and "Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)" by Eels; "Straight in the Head" and "Poison/Safe" by controller.controller; "Pusherman" by Curtis Mayfield; "Nice Vibes" by Michael Licari; "Unnecessary Trouble" by Hard-Fi; "Oh Yeah" by The Subways; and "Seat on This Train" by Tom Freund.
Cast
Critical reception
Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote "If the attention span of Charlie Bartlett didn’t wander here and there, the movie might have been a high school satire worthy of comparison with Alexander Payne’s Election. But as it dashes around and eventually turns soft, it loses its train of thought ... [and] never coalesces into the character-driven, serious comedy with heart that you want it be."[2]
David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle commented "The script is adequate, although screenwriter Nash has created one distasteful character after another, and there's barely a ripple of relieving humor in the entire film ... The material might have worked better if the filmmakers had adopted a satirical tone, or even if they'd gone the whole American Pie route. Instead, the film grinds on with only a few bright moments. The big problem, though, isn't the script but rather the direction and, specifically, the plodding pace of the film. That's surprising, given that first-time director Jon Poll has a background in film editing. It may have something to do with knowing pretty much what will happen from one moment to the next, but you keep wanting Poll and his cast to get on with things, or at least, energize the film some way or another. The tone is often just turgid ... Yet, for all its problems, the film is often sincere, often earnest ... You'll find yourself rooting for the filmmakers in spite of yourself, and, more to the point, in spite of the mistakes they've made."[3]
Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader called the film "a rebellious teen comedy that isn't as good or as radical as Pump Up the Volume, but still feels like a shot in the arm and is full of irreverent energy." He added, "Despite an ineffectual subplot about the hero's absent father, there are some good satirical riffs here on adult hypocrisies (with Robert Downey Jr. especially good as the beleaguered, alcoholic school principal), a few echoes of the underrated Mumford, and lots of high spirits."[4]
Darrell Hartmann of the New York Sun said, "John Poll's rebellious-teen comedy falls well below the high bar set by recent genre hits Juno and Superbad. An anything-goes kookiness pervades the first half, but the film then takes a trite turn that only serves to highlight its unlikely premise."[5]
David Balzer of Toronto Life, rating it three out of five stars, called it "a cool trip down teen dramedy lane, but one senses the film could be a lot smarter. Bartlett’s drug selling, it turns out, is not the main subject of the movie; 'messed-up people' are, and this causes Charlie Bartlett to lean on psychobabble about disaffection that it initially tries so hard to mock. The film’s use of Cat Stevens’s anthem from Harold and Maude, “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out,” encapsulates its problems; instead of acting as a wry expression of Bartlett’s dark philosophy, the song becomes the kind of pat message of self-empowerment that drives teens to Prozac in the first place."[6]
DVD release
MGM Home Entertainment released the film on Region 1 DVD on June 24, 2008. Viewers have the option of watching it in fullscreen (with optional commentary by Jon Poll and Gustin Nash) or anamorphic widescreen (with optional commentary by Poll, Anton Yelchin, and Kat Dennings) format. It has audio tracks and subtitles in English and Spanish. Bonus features include Restroom Confessionals and a music video by Spiral Beach.
References
External links
