Alternating between serious drama and comic absurdity, the film never settles on a consistent mood, which in turn mixes the messages it attempts to deliver.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 28, 2020

Like its protagonist, Jon Poll's debut movie is quirky and smart; how much you enjoy it, though, will probably depend on whether you warm to smug, troubled Charlie.

| Nov 20, 2020

Writer Gustin Nash and director Jon Poll have their Ferris Bueller thing working perfectly, with a few 2008 wrinkles.

| Apr 28, 2011

There are sweet moments, and there are funny moments, but it all just becomes so eye-rollingly calculated that it's hard to appreciate.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 4, 2009

'It is our duty as teenagers to piss off our parents,' Charlie says. The film succeeds only in pissing off the viewer.

| Aug 27, 2009

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 18, 2008

| Original Score: B | Oct 18, 2008

The promising themes peter out as the film loses direction, though, and Bartlett is neither sympathetic enough to root for nor dumb enough to laugh at.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 18, 2008

Lightweight fare, but a pleasant outing.

| Oct 18, 2008

Charlie Bartlett plays it too safe.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 18, 2008

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 1, 2008

Charlie Bartlett is a poor man's Rushmore. There is a great film waiting to be made about psychiatry, anti-depressants and our youth, but this isn't it.

| Original Score: 3/10 | Aug 27, 2008

Mostly this was a quirky, smart, inspiring, and surprisingly enjoyable High School movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 22, 2008

Robert Downey Jr. playing an alcoholic principal lecturing on the dangers of drugs is one of those wonderfully ironic, Twilight Zone moments that only Hollywood can provide.

| Jul 21, 2008

Charlie Bartlett is the Ferris Bueller of our drug addled age. Except he's not a fraction of the charmer ol' Ferris was.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 11, 2008

The movie is extremely hilarious, yet very serious and emotional at the same time.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 1, 2008

There are plenty of good qualities in Charlie; it just needed to apply itself a little more.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 16, 2008

Hugely entertaining high school drama with a delightfully offbeat script and terrific performances from a superb cast.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 16, 2008

[F]eels like little more than an amalgam of great moments from the John Hughes oeuvre as well as from Thumbsucker, Pump Up the Volume and Over the Edge, among others.

| May 1, 2008

Juno's dorkier, needier cousin, the one who's watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off too many times.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 17, 2008