Charlie Bartlett (2007)

Charlie Bartlett: Directed by Jon Poll. With Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey Jr., Hope Davis, Kat Dennings. A rich kid becomes the self-appointed psychiatrist to the student body of his new high school.

“I saw this in a membersu0026#39; preview at the wonderful Bryn Mawr Film Institute.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI truly enjoyed this movie. It was smart, hilarious, well-acted (especially Downey, Yelchin, and Davis), and well-scripted. I definitely recommend it, but not with the type of superlatives that other commenters have used here.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf my regard for this movie fades over the coming days, it will be in part because itu0026#39;s so easy to write a u0026quot;recipeu0026quot; for the film: itu0026#39;s 3 parts Pump Up the Volume, 1 part Rushmore, a generous dollop of closure, and enough cuteness and sweetness to smooth all the potential edginess out of the subject matter. Unfortunately, itu0026#39;s the sweetness that renders this movie inferior to both of those earlier movies (which are excellent). Once I was struck by the Pump Up the Volume comparison, I couldnu0026#39;t shake it, and I kept thinking that, although it has not aged wonderfully, Pump Up the Volume was the more honest and hard-hitting movie, and Rushmore was simply better.”