"Charlie Bartlett" is a film that takes your average teenage rebellion movie and spurs it on to something fierce. It has all the key points of its time: A young boy desperate for attention garners it by creating mass chaos in a school already on the edge.

Here's where the difference comes in: Take out the beach party kids, the attempts at mass domination, and a dead parent. Insert: An awkward and lonely rich child genuinely hoping for the approval and affection of his peers, discovered attempts at piecing a singular place back together that had become severely fractured, and one father in jail for tax fraud. These are just the outward pieces of "Charlie Bartlett."

This is a story easily overlooked as it's wrought with standard teen angst; its clichéd and fairly predictable with a side of the typical division you would see between the clicks in any high school based movie. However, what this film possesses that most don't is the ability to prove to you that even in ones darkest moments when things seem worst, one light, one ray of hope can begin to break cracks in a front put on by desperation and help bring back the majority of the things that have been lost.

If added in is that fact that the main character is played by Anton Yelchin, a boy that has shown his acting chops in both drama and comedy, the latter leaving us rolling on the floor; our Anti-Hero is played by Robert Downey Jr. who is known for his ability to throw himself so heavily into any part that it might consume him and leave the viewer clueless as to who is really there; and the female lead is played by the adorably hilarious Kat Dennings, an actress one can't help but smile at as she seems to exude an amazing amount of light and pure joy regardless of what part she's playing; you have a movie that will keep your attention, leave you with an intense desire to thank your closest teachers, and send you clawing to join your nearest SHAC.

High School is a nightmare. Don't be fooled by the tagline. Popularity isn't just a state of mind. But, maybe take a look at genuine popularity with fresh eyes. Is the popular kid the quarterback of the football team or the school bully, or is the popular kid the one trying to make it better?

The Bottom Line:

Charlie Bartlett benefits from engaging performances by all three leads and a screenplay that doesn't descend to the level of stupid teen pablum; an innovative and interesting story about a high school student who becomes psychiatrist to his classmates, it's well worth watching before something like 10 Things I Hate About You.

"Charlie Bartlett" is a run-of-the-mill teen comedy drama with a little twist. The twist being that even though it possesses all the cliches and tropes of its rather limited genre, it somehow manages to go just a little bit deeper than most. Which makes all the difference in the world.

First of all, the main characters are superbly played. Anton Yelchin is immensely adorable, and has quite the emotional range (not to mention his facial expressions range...). I hope he gets to play more roles like this one, because the boy sure has a lot of talent - both for comedy and drama. Robert Downey Jr. is a class unto himself and needs no superlatives. Suffice to say he does what he does best - portraying a character with problems, a little bit unsure of himself, a little bit wrong about stuff and possessing a lot of inner strength. The other members of the cast are forgettable, but never disappoint.

The atmosphere of the movie is fantastic. "Charlie Bartlett" is a very dynamic, very "rhythmic" piece. In this (and other things, mainly in the music and plot departments) it resembles the show "Weeds", even though its themes are more in line with UK's drama "Skins".

What really touches you though, are the characters. They are all just a little bit more real than what we're used to in movies like this one, but as I said in the beginning - that's quite enough. Charlie is both really strong and quite vulnerable, and Yelchin does a superb job in portraying this. He has admirable qualities, and he has obvious flaws - he can switch between likable and dislikable in the matter of seconds. Downey Jr.'s Principle Gardner is an alcoholic who has self-esteem issues and trouble connecting with his otherwise loving daughter Susan. The way he sees Charlie as almost a villain - a rival! - when the boy starts dating Susan is masterfully subtle and absolutely amazing. And he is not the bad guy. There is no bad guy in this movie, which is one more thing to like about it.

All in all, "Charlie Bartlett" does have its flaws. It is vain, it is filled with cliches to the brim and even though I couldn't possibly comprehend this, it seems some people find Anton Yelchin's Charlie exceedingly annoying. But "Charlie Bartlett" is also lively, honest, subtle and beautifully shot. Add to this the mood-lightening soundtrack and the supreme acting, and you have a movie well worth watching. So do yourself a favor and watch it!

Pretty good, but I'm not quite as thrilled with is as some reviewers. Some witty dialogue, and the teens felt like real teenagers in high school, but some of the plot stuff seemed pretty generic. Still, in lesser hands this could have been awful, with the kids coming off and whiners and spoiled brats. Instead they seemed like individuals with real problems (at least with problems that seem real to them). I just could have lived without some of the cliched student-vs-authority plotlines. (Although Robert Downey Jr. does a nice job as a self-loathing principal).

***1/2

Charlie Bartlett is a precocious and enterprising prep school reject who will do just about anything it takes to be popular. This includes sitting in the stall of the boys' restroom at the public school he now attends, dispensing medical and psychiatric advice - along with an assortment of prescription drugs he`s wrangled out of his therapist - to an appreciative (and appreciatively doped-up) student body. The real trouble begins when Charlie eventually comes under the radar of the school's paranoid (but actually kind of cool) principal, both for his illegal activities in the john and for the romantic interest he's taken in the man's own daughter, who also happens to be a student at the school.

Written by Gustin Nash and directed by Jon Poll, "Charlie Bartlett" is a cut above the average teen comedy thanks to generally sophisticated writing, winning performances by Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey, Jr., Hope Davis and Kat Dennings and the satirical swipe it takes at a culture that subscribes to the notion that a pharmaceutical a day will keep the blues away. The movie also comes replete with a couple of nice, comfy moral lessons to make us all feel better about ourselves in the end - namely, that we shouldn't compromise our integrity to achieve popularity, and that we need to learn to channel our creativity in a more "positive" direction if we hope to make anything of ourselves in this life.

In short, "Charlie Bartlett" is a "daring" comedy that doesn't really dare very much when all is said and done. Yet, while the movie does lose much of its edge in the second half - succumbing to too many "feel good" comedy cliches and only-in-the-movies moments - it still manages to leave us smiling in the end.