Charlie Bartlett
Encyclopedia
Charlie Bartlett is a 2008 comedy-drama film
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...

 directed by Jon Poll
Jon Poll
Jon Poll is an American film director, editor and producer, best known for his directorial debut with the 2007 film Charlie Bartlett.-Career:...

. The screenplay by Gustin Nash
Gustin Nash
Gustin Nash is an American screenwriter best known for writing the 2007 film Charlie Bartlett and the 2010 film Youth in Revolt.-Life and career:...

 focuses on a teenager who begins to dispense therapeutic advice
Therapy
This is a list of types of therapy .* Adventure therapy* Animal-assisted therapy* Aquatic therapy* Aromatherapy* Art and dementia* Art therapy* Authentic Movement* Behavioral therapy* Bibliotherapy* Buteyko Method* Chemotherapy...

 and prescription drugs to the student body at his new high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 in order to become popular.

The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...

 on May 1, 2007, and was shown at the Cannes Film Market
Marché du Film
The Marché du Film is the business counterpart of the Cannes Film Festival and the largest film market in the world.It was created in 1959 and it is held annually since then, simultaneously to the Cannes Festival...

, the Maui Film Festival
Hawaii International Film Festival
The Hawaii International Film Festival is a film festival held in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It was started in 1981 by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko and has been held annually in the fall for two weeks...

, and the Cambridge Film Festival
Cambridge Film Festival
The Cambridge Film Festival is one of the biggest film festivals in the UK. The festival historically took place during early July, but now takes place annually during September in Cambridge....

 before going into theatrical release in the United States and Canada on August 3, 2007.

Plot

The son of a depressed but doting mother (Hope Davis
Hope Davis
Hope Davis is an American actress. She has starred in more than 20 feature films, including About Schmidt, Arlington Road, Flatliners, Mumford, American Splendor, The Lodger and Next Stop Wonderland....

) and a father who is serving time for tax evasion
Tax evasion
Tax evasion is the general term for efforts by individuals, corporations, trusts and other entities to evade taxes by illegal means. Tax evasion usually entails taxpayers deliberately misrepresenting or concealing the true state of their affairs to the tax authorities to reduce their tax liability,...

, wealthy teenager Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin
Anton Yelchin
Anton Viktorovich Yelchin is an American film and television actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television roles, as well as the Hollywood films Along Came a Spider and Hearts in Atlantis...

), - after being expelled from several private academies for various infractions - enrolls in a public school run by embittered alcoholic Principal Nathan Gardner (Robert Downey, Jr.). Unable to fit-in with most of his fellow students, Charlie forms an alliance with school bully Murphy Bivens (Tyler Hilton
Tyler Hilton
Tyler James Hilton is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Hilton began his professional career in music in 2000. Rolling Stone Magazine compared him to his contemporary, Howie Day, while others have compared Hilton to Elton John, both vocally and instrumentally...

) 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 noticeably improves as he gains the confidence and admiration of the student body and begins to date the principal's rebellious daughter, Susan (Kat Dennings
Kat Dennings
Katherine Litwack , better known by the stage name Kat Dennings, is an American actress. Emerging with a role in an episode of the HBO dramedy series Sex and the City, Dennings has since appeared in the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Big Momma's House 2, Charlie Bartlett, Raise Your Voice, The House...

).

Complications arise when seriously depressed Kip Crombwell (Mark Rendall
Mark Rendall
Mark Rendall is a Canadian actor, perhaps best known for starring in the title role of the 2004 film, Childstar, as well as Mick in Season 1 of the Canadian television drama series ReGenesis. He played Bastian Bux in the TV series, Tales from the Neverending Story, and the title character in The...

) attempts suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 by swallowing a handful of anti-depressants provided by Charlie. Charlie befriends Kip after having an in-depth conversation with Principal Gardner. Charlie discovers Kip is writing a play about adolescent issues and pitches it to Gardner who is, at first, unsure but agrees when Kip says that it would make him happier with life. The students then have trouble with the student lounge; security cameras get installed, and they start a riot.

One day, Charlie comes by Susan's house to pick her up for a date, and he gives her a pharmacy bag. Mr. Gardner comes out, thinking the bag is full of "inappropriate items", and pushes Charlie, who then punches Gardner as a reflex. He tries to apologize, but the principal was not forgiving. Susan and Charlie drive off, and the bag turns out to be Nicotine gum
Nicotine gum
Nicotine gum is a type of chewing gum that delivers nicotine to the body. It is used as an aid in nicotine replacement therapy , a process for smoking cessation and quitting smokeless tobacco. The nicotine is delivered to the bloodstream via absorption by the tissues of the mouth.It is currently...

, to help Susan to quit smoking cigarettes.

One night, the students of the public school are all at the student lounge, when the cops arrive. They arrest Charlie for assault, Principal Gardner is fired, and the kids trash the lounge building. Charlie is released, and before the play he stops by Mr. Gardner's house to invite him. His study has been trashed, and Mr. Gardner is heavily intoxicated equipped with a hand gun. Mr. Gardner repeatedly fires the gun at the pool and in the air making Charlie scared. They get into a heated argument which causes Mr. Gardner to put the gun close to his head making Charlie think that Mr. Gardner is attempting to commit suicide. Charlie intervenes by tackling Mr. Gardner. He wanted to push him into the pool but failed and fell over himself, hitting the diving board on the fall. Mr. Gardner, appearing sober, comes to his senses and dives in the pool to save Charlie and states that he was not attempting to commit suicide and that he had too many responsibilities to commit suicide. They talk their problems over about Charlie's father and Susan, and then go to the play. Mr. Gardner becomes a teacher, and Charlie is now able to visit his father in prison and looks for work as a psychiatrist
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...

.

Cast

  • Anton Yelchin
    Anton Yelchin
    Anton Viktorovich Yelchin is an American film and television actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television roles, as well as the Hollywood films Along Came a Spider and Hearts in Atlantis...

     as Charlie Bartlett, a wealthy teenager and the protagonist
    Protagonist
    A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

     who begins to sell prescription drugs.
  • Kat Dennings
    Kat Dennings
    Katherine Litwack , better known by the stage name Kat Dennings, is an American actress. Emerging with a role in an episode of the HBO dramedy series Sex and the City, Dennings has since appeared in the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Big Momma's House 2, Charlie Bartlett, Raise Your Voice, The House...

     as Susan Gardner, Charlie's love interest, and the principal's rebellious daughter with a smoking problem.
  • Robert Downey, Jr. as Nathan Gardner, the alcoholic principal and Susan's father, the primary antagonist
    Antagonist
    An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...

    .
  • Tyler Hilton
    Tyler Hilton
    Tyler James Hilton is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Hilton began his professional career in music in 2000. Rolling Stone Magazine compared him to his contemporary, Howie Day, while others have compared Hilton to Elton John, both vocally and instrumentally...

     as Murphey Bivens, the school bully who grows to befriend Charlie.
  • Hope Davis
    Hope Davis
    Hope Davis is an American actress. She has starred in more than 20 feature films, including About Schmidt, Arlington Road, Flatliners, Mumford, American Splendor, The Lodger and Next Stop Wonderland....

     as Marilyn Bartlett, Charlie's depressed mother.
  • Mark Rendall
    Mark Rendall
    Mark Rendall is a Canadian actor, perhaps best known for starring in the title role of the 2004 film, Childstar, as well as Mick in Season 1 of the Canadian television drama series ReGenesis. He played Bastian Bux in the TV series, Tales from the Neverending Story, and the title character in The...

     as Kip Crombwell, a depressed teenager who befriends Charlie after attempting suicide.
  • Jake Epstein
    Jake Epstein
    Jacob Lee "Jake" Epstein is a Canadian actor and singer, perhaps best known for playing Craig Manning, a bipolar musician, on Degrassi: The Next Generation.-Personal life:...

     as Dustin Lauderbach, the most popular guy in school who goes to Charlie for help when he's under too much pressure.
  • Megan Park
    Megan Park
    Megan Marie Park is a Canadian actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in Charlie Bartlett and the television series The Secret Life of the American Teenager as Grace Bowman.-Life and career:...

     as Whitney Drummond, Dustin's cheerleader
    Cheerleading
    Cheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...

     girlfriend.
  • Lauren Collins
    Lauren Collins
    Lauren Felice Collins is a Canadian actress that is perhaps best known for portraying Paige Michalchuk on Degrassi: The Next Generation.-Life and career:...

     as Kelly
  • Derek McGrath
    Derek McGrath
    Derek McGrath is a Canadian actor.He is known for his roles in Cheers as "Andy-Andy" Schroeder , Dr. Benjamin Jeffcoate in My Secret Identity, Crewman Chell in Star Trek: Voyager, and as Dr. Derek Hebert in Doc...

     as Superintendent Sedgwick
  • Stephen Young
    Stephen Young (actor)
    Stephen Young is a Canadian actor.Young was born Stephen Levy in Toronto, Canada to a financier father. Directly following high school, the naturally gifted teen athlete signed on for a career with the Cleveland Indians, but his professional bid ended when he seriously injured his knee playing ice...

     as Dr. Stan Weathers
  • Abby Zotz
    Abby Zotz
    Abby Zotz is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actress.-Biography:The Zotz family originated in Tyrol, Austria and spread to Germany, from where Abby’s father immigrated to Canada. He loved classical music, especially Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang...

     as Mrs. Crombwell
  • Aubrey Graham
    Drake (entertainer)
    Aubrey Drake Graham , who records under the mononym Drake, is a Canadian recording artist and actor. He originally became known for playing Jimmy Brooks on the television series Degrassi: The Next Generation....

     as A/V Jones


The film features four of the then Degrassi
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Degrassi: The Next Generation is a Canadian teen drama television series set in the Degrassi universe, which was created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood in 1979. Degrassi is the fourth fictional series in the Degrassi franchise, and follows The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, and...

cast members as Charlie's fellow students: Jake Epstein
Jake Epstein
Jacob Lee "Jake" Epstein is a Canadian actor and singer, perhaps best known for playing Craig Manning, a bipolar musician, on Degrassi: The Next Generation.-Personal life:...

 (Craig Manning), Lauren Collins
Lauren Collins
Lauren Felice Collins is a Canadian actress that is perhaps best known for portraying Paige Michalchuk on Degrassi: The Next Generation.-Life and career:...

 (Paige Michalchuk
Paige Michalchuk
Paige Michalchuk is a fictional character in the TV series Degrassi: The Next Generation, portrayed by Lauren Collins.Paige was initially presented as the stereotypical "Queen bee": rich, snobby, and popular...

), Aubrey Graham
Drake (entertainer)
Aubrey Drake Graham , who records under the mononym Drake, is a Canadian recording artist and actor. He originally became known for playing Jimmy Brooks on the television series Degrassi: The Next Generation....

 (Jimmy Brooks), and Ishan Davé (Linus).

Production

The film was shot on location in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 as well as at Parkwood Estate
Parkwood Estate
The Parkwood Estate, located in Oshawa, Ontario Canada was the home of Samuel McLaughlin and was home to the McLaughlins from 1917 until 1972. Construction began in 1916 by the Toronto architectural firm of Pearson and Darling...

 in Oshawa
Oshawa
Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario approximately 60 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of both the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe. It is now commonly referred to as the most...

, Ontario and Trafalgar Castle School
Trafalgar Castle School
Trafalgar Castle School in Whitby, Ontario is a private day and residential school for girls and young women in grades 5 through 12, but available for boarding since grade 7...

 in Whitby, Ontario. It was also filmed at Western Technical-Commercial School
Western Technical-Commercial School
Western Technical-Commercial School ' is a high school in the High Park North neighbourhood of Toronto, Canada. It shares the same building with Ursula Franklin Academy and The Student School. Originally two schools when it was opened, Western Technical and Western Commercial, the present school is...

, where parts of Billy Madison
Billy Madison
Billy Madison is a 1995 American comedy film directed by Tamra Davis and starring Adam Sandler, in the title role, Bradley Whitford, Bridgette Wilson, Norm Macdonald and Darren McGavin. The film was written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy, and produced by Universal Studios. It made over $25.5 million...

and Ice Princess
Ice Princess
Ice Princess is a 2005 American figure-skating film directed by Tim Fywell, Starring Michelle Trachtenberg, Joan Cusack, Kim Cattrall, Hayden Panettiere, Trevor Blumas, and Kirsten Olson...

were shot.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack includes "Strobe," "New Clouds, Hot Clouds," "Voodoo," ""Day OK," and "Close to Midnight" by Spiral Beach
Spiral Beach
Spiral Beach was a Canadian indie rock band, based in Toronto, Ontario, active from 2003 to 2009. The group consisted of vocalist and guitarist Airick Woodhead, vocalist and keyboardist Maddy Wilde, bassist Dorian Wolf and drummer Daniel Woodhead.-History:...

; "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" and "Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)" by Eels
Eels (band)
Eels is an American indie rock band formed by singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett, better known as E...

; "Straight in the Head" and "Poison/Safe" by controller.controller
Controller.controller
controller.controller was a Canadian indie rock band from Toronto, Ontario. The band consisted of vocalist Nirmala Basnayake, guitarists Colwyn Llewellyn-Thomas and Scott Kaija, bassist Ronnie Morris and drummer Jeff Scheven. The band took its name from a song by Shotmaker. The band formed in 2002...

; "Pusherman" by Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer.He is best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is highly...

; "Nice Vibes" by Michael Licari
Michael Licari
Michael Licari is an American television composer and song writer. He has worked as a composer on the television series, "Deliver Me", documentary "Triple the Triplets"...

; "Unnecessary Trouble" by Hard-Fi
HARD-Fi
Hard-Fi are an English indie rock band formed in Staines, Surrey in 2003. The band's members are Richard Archer , Ross Phillips , Kai Stephens and Steve Kemp .They achieved chart success with their third single, "Hard to Beat" and then followed by other successful singles such as...

; "Oh Yeah" by The Subways
The Subways
The Subways are an English alternative rock / indie rock band. Their debut album, Young For Eternity, was released on 4 July 2005 in the UK and February 14, 2006 in the U.S. Their second album, All or Nothing, was released on 30 June 2008 and their third album Money and Celebrity debuted on the...

; and "Seat on This Train" by Tom Freund
Tom Freund
Tom Freund is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from the U.S.A.. Freund met Ben Harper when he was attending Pitzer College in Claremont, California. In 1992 the duo released an album, Pleasure and Pain. Not long after, he joined the alternative country group The Silos as their bassist,...

.

Critical reception

Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden is an American writer, music critic, film critic, and poet.Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963...

 of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

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
Alexander Payne
Alexander Payne, born Alexander Constantine Papadopoulos is an American film director and screenwriter. His films are noted for their dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society.- Early life :...

’s Election
Election (1999 film)
Election is a 1999 American comedy film adapted from a 1998 novel of the same title by Tom Perrotta. The plot revolves around a three-way election race in high school, and satirizes both suburban high school life and politics...

. 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."

David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

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
American Pie (film)
American Pie is a 1999 teen comedy film written by Adam Herz. American Pie was the directorial film debut of brothers Paul and Chris Weitz, and the first film in the American Pie film series...

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."

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
Pump Up the Volume (film)
Pump Up the Volume is a 1990 comedy-drama film written and directed by Allan Moyle and starring Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis.- Plot summary :...

, 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
Mumford (film)
Mumford is a 1999 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan. It is set in a small town where a new psychologist gives offbeat advice to the neurotic residents...

, and lots of high spirits."

Darrell Hartmann of the New York Sun
New York Sun
The New York Sun was a weekday daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 to 2008. When it debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of an otherwise unrelated earlier New York paper, The Sun , it became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started...

said, "John Poll's rebellious-teen comedy falls well below the high bar set by recent genre hits Juno
Juno (film)
Juno is a 2007 comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. Ellen Page stars as the title character, an independent-minded teenager confronting an unplanned pregnancy and the subsequent events that put pressures of adult life onto her. Michael Cera, Olivia Thirlby, J. K....

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."

David Balzer of Toronto Life
Toronto Life
Toronto Life is a monthly Canadian magazine about entertainment, politics and life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Toronto Life also publishes a number of annual special interest guides about the city, including Home Decor, Stylebook, Eating & Drinking, Real Estate and Weddings. Established in 1966,...

, 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
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....

anthem
Anthem
The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem".-Etymology:The word is derived from the Greek via Old English , a word...

 from Harold and Maude
Harold and Maude
Harold and Maude is a 1971 American dark comedy film directed by Hal Ashby and released by Paramount Pictures. It incorporates elements of dark humor and existentialist drama, with a plot that revolves around the exploits of a young man intrigued with death, Harold...

, “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."

Home media

MGM Home Entertainment
MGM Home Entertainment
MGM Home Entertainment is the home video and DVD arm of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-History:The home video division of MGM started in 1979 as MGM Home Video, releasing all the movies and TV shows by MGM. In 1980, MGM joined forces with CBS Video Enterprises, the home video division of the CBS television...

 released the film on Region 1 DVD on June 24, 2008. Viewers have the option of watching it in fullscreen
Pan and scan
Pan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects...

 (with optional commentary by Jon Poll and Gustin Nash) or anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original 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
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 by Spiral Beach.

External links

  • Official website
  • Charlie Bartlett trailer on YouTube
    YouTube
    YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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