Charlie Bartlett diagnoses neurosis

In theaters Friday: Pineapple Express, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
New on DVD: The Counterfeiters, Nim’s Island

You really ought to know who Anton Yelchin is because I think the kid’s got a bright future. Last year, after stealing scenes as the kidnapped kid in Alpha Dog, he landed his first lead role in Charlie Bartlett, out now on DVD. I rented it last weekend, and can say Yelchin gives a truly bizarre performance, one both admirable in range and likeability, but somehow hard to get a bead on.

His character is a wealthy and wayward high school kid who’s too smart for his own good. Despite an innocent demeanor, Charlie pulls off scheme after scheme in the face of authority. At times overly confident, and other times incredibly shy, Charlie is a well-rounded caricature of a precocious teenager who doesn’t know what to do with himself. The film opens with Charlie beginning life anew at a public high school after being booted out of private school for mass-producing fake IDs. He quickly becomes the most popular kid in school by holding therapy sessions in the boys’ bathroom and doling out prescription drugs like candy. Things get complicated (they always do) when Charlie begins dating the daughter of the principal, played straight and empathetic by Robert Downey Jr., and his pseudo-psychiatric antics catch the attention of the school superintendent. The film goes to great lengths to draw battle lines between the adults — like Downey, Charlie’s mother and his therapist, who all prefer alcohol and have their own unique skewed views of authority — and the teenagers who get their kicks from pills and question every edict handed down from on high.

Unfortunately, there are too many overt references to Wes Anderson’s brilliant Rushmore. In fact, I’d wager that this script came about after seeing the 1998 classic. Such thievery is treading through well-worn territory at this point, so I was visibly relieved when Charlie yanked the private school patch from his ever-present blazer and ditched his button-down and tie look for T-shirts. At least he no longer looked like Max Fischer, even though he sounded like him after a couple doses of Ritalin.

Though far from perfect, I liked that this movie had some things to say, particularly about teen popularity and constructive, life-building ways to deal with one’s problems. It even points to a quiet revolution in the field of psychiatry with its subtle anticlimax. But these are only touched on, as they should be, in a wash of teen comedy.

There are several big laughs in this script, but it’s a sure sign of a first-time writer, in this case Gustin Nash, when it feels like all the whimsical jokes and character ticks that flooded his head at some point between adolescence and being hired for this movie come out in Charlie, making him less the focused subject of a lilting portrait and more a vague cipher for all the precocious youths of modern America. Charlie’s either that or a clear-cut case of multiple personality disorder. I’ll stick with the former because Yelchin is the real deal. The 19-year-old’s performance is all over the place, as the script demands, but each note is convincing even if the sum total never equals the charismatic brilliance of the parts. I met Yelchin and his mother briefly when he filmed Middle of Nowhere in Baton Rouge last year. That film, helmed by John Stockwell and co-starring Eva Amurri and Susan Sarandon, should be out this fall.

Let the games begin. Bloggers and movie fans everywhere are watching to see if The Dark Knight, which raked in another $44 million this weekend to remain No. 1, can surpass the domestic box office take of Titanic. So far, The Dark Knight is much faster out of the gate than Titanic, but remember the 1997 disaster movie played in theaters for something like nine months, and 14-year-old girls saw it over and over and over. The new Batman movie has done incredibly well in theaters, and deservingly so, but I don’t think it can catch Titanic. It should easily blow past the original Star Wars at $461 million, but I’m convinced James Cameron’s film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet is just a box office freak of nature. My prediction? The Dark Knight will surpass Star Wars on Aug. 17, and top out at around $550 million, roughly $50 million shy of being “king of the world!” What do you think? Does The Dark Knight have what it takes to win the battle of the box office?

Finally, here is what looks like a pretty solid indie film called In Search of a Midnight Kiss. Other than the forced seriousness of the black-and-white footage — does director Alex Holdridge think he’s Woody Allen or something? — the trailer looks impressive. The film premiered at festivals last year, so it should be making its way to DVD soon.