Charlie Bartlett is a film about growing up, about finding your own way and ultimately, about finding yourself. Oh, and it’s really, really funny.

Charlie (Anton Yelchin) is a rich kid, who is obsessed with being popular. His prior attempts to achieve popularity unfortunately always ended with him being expelled from school, so he ends up in public [in the American sense] school. At this new school, he becomes the psychiatrist for his fellow students, setting up his “office” in the boys’ room, where he listens to their problems and prescribes meds. And he falls in love with the principal’s (Robert Downey Jr.) daughter (Kat Dennings).

I can’t stress enough how great Anton Yelchin was. He completely overshadowed every other actor in this movie, although Dennings’ and Downey Jr.’s performances were great. Yelchin can switch from being an insecure teenager to doing a (great) Ray Charles impersonation to playing a teenage girl, who talks about her first period, and we believe it all, without a second hesitation.

The script was really, really good and really, really, really funny. [“Oh trust me doc, bringing psychiatric drugs and teenagers together is like opening a lemonade stand in the desert.”] Charlie and Ritalin make for instant fun.

So, go on and see it right now. It’s worth it!

[On a completely different note: Why does google send people to my blog, who search for “go go dancer designer costumes”? I hate to disappoint people, really…]