Charlie Bartlett

Rollicking story of a rich kid whose wildly successful bid for popularity has him playing drug-distributing shrink to an entire high school boasts pitch-perfect faceoffs between upstart Anton Yelchin and alcoholic principal Robert Downey Jr. that could fuel a chemistry lab.

A refreshingly entertaining character study that refuses to dumb down its youthful cast or bury their concerns in service of a catchy soundtrack.

Jon Poll's harmless, occasionally entertaining debut feature.

Like most wannabe heroes of the eager-to-please teen comedy, poor little rich boy Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin) is too charming by half and not nearly quirky enough.

A relentlessly earnest teen film.

Decent acting forestalls the inevitable collapse for a long time.

Are teenagers really supposed to identify with a clumsy caricature such as Charlie, who, in spite of all his expulsions and school crimes, comes across as a gawping, perpetually surprised infant in an adult body?

I adore this movie! After renting it out randomly at my local video store I became obsessed with this amazing film. Anton Yelchin is a standout and Kat Dennings as usual is a absolute pleasure to watch on screen. The film combines humour with hard hitting topics such as drugs, depression and family. When my friends and family ask me to recomend a movie to them this is always the first one that pops into my head. The only negative comment I have to say is why the hell wasn't this movie released in theatres in Australia. For such a great film, I don't believe it received the applause that it was definitely lacking.

Well, it's a fun enough comedy. The cast is nice and likable, nobody too annoying. The plot is interesting and keeps changing without you especially noticing but also not entirely predictable. And while these things might as well don't matter, the important thing is that this is one light-weight, unpretentious comedy that will probably keep you interested from start to finish. And this is not an easy task to pull off for any movie.

Charlie Bartlett is inexplicably cheap looking and sounding. If I were shown this movie without knowing anything about it I would have thought it was from the 90's. Aside from that, I have never seen a teen coming of age comedy with such strong performances. The story often times is confused and scattered, but focuses up enough at vital moments to make it solid, and respectful to the issues it is dealing with.