Charlie Bartlett (2008)
Directed by Jon Poll
Awkward teenager Charlie Bartlett has trouble fitting in at a new high school. Charlie needs some friends fast, and decides that the best way to find them is to appoint himself the resident psychiatrist. He becomes one of the most popular guys in school by doling out advice and, occasionally, medication, to the student body.
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4 films that influenced Charlie Bartlett
What critics say influenced Charlie Bartlett
The romance between Charlie and Susan (which even has a Cat Stevens song for a theme) is basically " Harold and Maude " with a gorgeous teenage girl instead of feisty septuagenarian Ruth Gordon .
It's "If You Want to Sing Out," the theme from that earlier teen-outcast movie, Harold and Maude .
But the underlying message of the film, with its nods to Catcher in the Rye and - '70s throwback here - Harold and Maude, is a good one: empathy and compassion, communication and friendship, have more to do with emotional growth than does striking cool poses on the high school steps.
When the camera alights on his moneyed and blithely out-of-touch mother (Hope Davis), Harold and Maude springs to mind.
"Harold and Maude," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Rushmore" are all over "Charlie Bartlett" like a drunken prom date.
And the film centered on him is a clever, inventive and ambitious comedy with echoes of Rushmore, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and even Harold and Maude.
Back in the day, it seemed, everybody wanted to be Ferris Bueller, that coolly rebellious teen played so perfectly by Matthew Broderick in the John Hughes classic "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
The movie smells like "Catcher in the Rye" and some of its loose offspring, like "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and, in particular, "Rushmore," especially after we find out the public-school principal (Robert Downey Jr.) is a self-loathing drunk who likes to wallow by his swimming pool the way Bill Murray did in "Rushmore."
Like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Charlie Bartlett becomes, in its exploration of the troublemaker who’s so attuned to his generation that he exemplifies all that defines it, a satire on how that generation was shaped by its elders.
Big question: Can “Charlie Bartlett” succeed in its obvious attempt at combining “Rushmore” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”?
With a flip of the detention slip to Rushmore and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the high school comedy Charlie Bartlett brings a bit of realism - kids on drugs, kids smoking, kids having sex - that doesn't usually make the grade in the genre of addled adolescent angst.
The role of "Charlie Bartlett" requires a charismatic, magnetic young actor someone along the line of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"-era Matthew Broderick.
Or Max Fischer (“Rushmore”).
The movie smells like "Catcher in the Rye" and some of its loose offspring, like "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and, in particular, "Rushmore," especially after we find out the public-school principal (Robert Downey Jr.) is a self-loathing drunk who likes to wallow by his swimming pool the way Bill Murray did in "Rushmore."
Directed and written by first-timers Jon Poll and Gustin Nash, it's a lightly dumbed-down version of "Rushmore," complete with precocious preppies, dysfunctional jocks and a few clueless parents.
Some may see shades of Rushmore in it.
Big question: Can “Charlie Bartlett” succeed in its obvious attempt at combining “Rushmore” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”?
I remained uncharmed by Charlie even as the movie rolled out its premise - a private school expels Charlie, who is forced to attend public school (someone has seen "Rushmore"), where he ingratiates himself by functioning as an informal psychiatrist (he takes sessions in the lavatory) and prescribing drugs (acquired from an upper-crusty Dr. Feelgood) as he sees fit.
Eventually, Charlie must deliver a speech similar to the one Graham Chapman gives to his religious followers in Monty Python's " Life of Brian ," telling them that they don't need him to lead them and that they must learn to think for themselves because they are all individuals.