screening

Web-Exclusive Review: The Education of Charlie Banks

Alternative Press - Rob Ortenzi on 3/25/09 @ 11:09 AM - altpress.com

DRAMA
THE EDUCATION OF CHARLIE BANKS (Anchor Bay Entertainment)
STARS > Jesse Eisenberg, Jason Ritter, Eva Amurri, Sebastian Stan
DIRECTOR > Fred Durst
RATING > 3/5
OPENS > MAR 27
Ten years ago, when the goatee-and-date-rape crowd was in the backward-ballcap throes of Limp Bizkit fever, we definitely would've pissed our pants laughing if someone told us that not only would we be reviewing the directorial debut of Fred "Break Stuff" Durst, but that the movie in question would actually be decent. Fast forward to The Education Of Charlie Banks, a coming of age tale set in the early '80s and starring Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid And The Whale, Adventureland) as the titular college boy who gets an unexpected visit from his old neighborhood's resident tough guy, a short-fused but charismatic pugilist named Mick. Played with deceptive subtlety by Jason Ritter (aka Kevin Girardi from CBS' defunct Joan Of Arcadia series), Mick turns up in Charlie's dorm room and quickly starts sleeping with Mary (Amurri, who also happens to be Susan Sarandon's daughter), a buxom co-ed whom Charlie has had his eye on. The last time Charlie saw Mick, by the way, was back in high school, when Charlie went to the cops after watching Mick cold-cock two steakheads at a house party, sending them both to the hospital. The question of whether or not Mick knows this fact is the basis of the mounting tension between the two characters, a dynamic only enhanced by their diametrically opposed demeanors and the actors' natural physical disparities.

Meanwhile, Durst's apt direction and his cast's performances wring the best from writer-producer Peter Elkoff's script. The many, many ways in which this film could have devolved into after-school special territory are parlayed into assets, such as the over-the-top performance of Sebastian Stan, who plays a smarmy trust fund yuppie/guppie straight out of Less Than Zero but works the caricature into such a garish frenzy that you almost feel bad for him when Mick finally punches him in the face. The period-appropriate music-selected personally by Durst, we're told-also helps focus the numerous scenes that have little visual grounding in anything that resembles the Reagan era. And aside from one cheesy moment, the ending avoids convention, delivering catharsis without Hollywood didactics. Still, Durst has since directed The Longshots, a feel-good Bad News Bears retread starring Ice Cube (which was curiously released last year, well before Charlie Banks) so it's not like we're talking about the new Martin Scorsese here. But for a dude who used to do it all for the nookie? Not too shabby. --J. Bennett

Film Link: http://www.charliebanksmovie.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

No comments yet!



  |     |   Share   |   Print this article