"The shoot was a blast from start to finish. It was hard work and extremely intensive but this was made all the easier by the people involved. Bob and I hit it off back when the we were discussing my involvement in the project, so I had a friend going in, which always helps. I'd been informed of Kirsten Dunst's involvement at the beginning of the year whilst on the Hot Fuzz press tour of the US. We crossed paths in LA a week or so later whilst she was on Webslinger press duties at the Four Seasons Hotel. I liked her immediately. She was friendly and unassuming and got on well with Nick Frost, which is usually my benchmark for judging people.
We became good friends during the shoot. She is the product of that odd collision between wisdom and youth. An actress since she was three years old, she demonstrates experience and professionalism, coupled with a healthy understanding of the nature of the business. She is also one of the most instinctively gifted actresses I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I'm a fan. Does it show?
The cast was filled out with similarly exciting prospects. Jeff Bridges, a legend and an incredibly generous actor had me quivering with excitement every time he walked onto set (look out for a tense game of Pass The Pigs between Jeff, Bob and me in a future installment). Gillian Anderson, so long the object of a huge fanboy crush of mine, is brilliantly icy as New York queen of PR, Eleanor Johnson in the movie but warm and funny and fun off set (I played it cool).
Danny Huston, a man who I don't recall ever seeing not smiling is like me, a giggler, a condition which always causes exquisite anxiety when the cameras are rolling. And of course, Megan Fox, an actress all too easy to underestimate, due to her striking beauty but one who definitely proves her worth as the "so hot right now" ingenue Sophie Maes. This was a group of people who made getting out of bed at 5.45am as easy as falling asleep 16 hours later. Early in the shoot, Toby approached Kirsten on set and asked if she had fallen in love with him yet, after which he proceeded to give her a performance note. This might have been charming if they had been formally introduced but they hadn't. As it was, I believe her response was an understandable, "Who the fuck's this guy?" Bob told me that he had received an email from Toby that night saying, "It's going to be really difficult for me to come on set and not get involved." Bob sent him a reply saying that there was an easy solution to that problem. We didn't really see Toby on set again after that". Source: www.guardian.co.uk
JAY BARUCHEL Age: 26. Hometown: Montreal. Breakthrough role: Jay in Knocked Up. Upcoming film: Tropic Thunder. Chuck Taylors or Nikes? Nikes. Levi’s or J Brand? “I think they’re Levi’s. It’s whatever my mother buys for me because my mother buys all my pants.” BlackBerry or iPhone? BlackBerry. Justin Timberlake or John Mayer? “Oh Jesus, I’d take a cyanide pill.” Rihanna or Carrie Underwood? “Jesus Christ. I’m a big David Archuleta fan.” Inspiration? “If I am ever remotely funny, I credit Rowan Atkinson and Ricky Gervais, and I know you’re not supposed to say this anymore, but, growing up, Michael Richards was pretty important to me.” Favorite snack? “My death-row meal would be shepherd’s pie.” Eli Manning or Tom Brady? “I hate football.” Favorite TV show? “It’s a toss-up between Seinfeld and The Simpsons.” Last book you read? “Book five of the Dark Tower series, by Stephen King, which is called … Hold on, I’m having an absolute brain fart … ” Hybrid or Escalade? “Whatever my employers rent for me.”
KAT DENNINGS Age: 22. Hometown: Philadelphia. Breakthrough role: Catherine Keener’s daughter in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Upcoming film: The House Bunny. Number of shoes in your closet? “I would say at this moment a conservative number would be 40 pairs because I’ve gotten rid of a lot. I mean, I’m adding to them, though, sadly, so soon it will be 50 pairs.” Jimmy Choo or Christian Louboutin? “I can’t say that I’ve ever worn either of those. I would love to.” Levi’s or J Brand? Miss Sixty. BlackBerry or iPhone? iPhone. Favorite guy’s guy? “Oh, Viggo Mortensen, obviously. I mean, not obviously, but … ” Justin Timberlake or John Mayer? Justin Timberlake. Rihanna or Carrie Underwood? Rihanna. What’s on your iPod? “Oh, good Lord, what isn’t on my iPod? AC/DC, Mariah Carey, tons of David Bowie, Aerosmith. I have Tchaikovsky, and I have some orchestral scores, like the Amélie soundtrack. Diana Krall; the White Stripes and Queen. Yeah, everything.” Eli Manning or Tom Brady? “I only know who Tom Brady is. I only know that because he’s dating Gisele Bündchen.” Favorite movie? “Videodrome. It’s a David Cronenberg movie with James Woods in it and Blondie [Deborah Harry], and it’s bananas.” Source: www.theirlife.net
"Do you know what is like to fall on the floor cry your guts out 'till you got no more? Hey man now you're really living. Have you ever made love to a beautiful girl? Made you feel like it's not such a bad world?" — "Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)" by Mark Everett (The Eels)
"Charlie Bartlett" is the directorial debut of editor Jon Poll after his short film The Tree (1982), an exercise in audiovisual expression exploring man's violence against nature through rhythm and figures. Now Poll's second film Something Borrowed (2008) is in pre-production. Charlie Bartlett's screenwriter Gustin Nash also penned the script for Youth in Revolt (2008) with Miguel Arteta. In "Charlie Bartlett" teen popularity is a state of mind.
After being expelled from his last private school for forging IDs, Charlie (Anton Yelchin) finds himself attending Western Summit High School, a public school — this time without his limo chauffeur Thomas — where he gets a brutal welcome from a school bully, Murphey Bivens (played by Tyler Hilton).
Charlie innocently translates a Latin inscription on his blazer — "Cor ad cor loquitur" — for a couple of curious bullies as "heart speaks to heart." They mock him and ask him if he is a total faggot or what? Charlie asks, "Is that a rhetorical question?"
He is beaten until his nose bleeds and his left eye turns black, a sign he is going to live in a dark ghetto thereafter; fortunately Murphey soon will reveal a less belligerant nature ("In fifth grade, I played Linus in "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" and I was good") as he comes to know the new snotty boy and overlook the more irritating and snarky sides of Charlie, who tries to teach him how to dominate these bullying impulses, which Murphey calls "fists of fury." A pretty drama student, Susan Gardner (Kat Dennings), mistakes Charlie for a teacher when she sees him wearing a tie, and she is immediately attracted by his quirky manners, offhand remarks, and his skills in improvising theatre comedy. She is the daughter of the school's principal Nathan Gardner (Robert Downey Jr.), with whom she has a difficult relationship. Maybe this unsatisfactory family bond is one of the reasons for the mutual attraction between Susan and Charlie. We learn that Charlie's father is locked up in prison due to a tax evasion conviction and his mother Marilyn Bartlett (Hope Davis) is a Klonopin-dependent, "invisible" nice mother who enjoys singing at the piano, "Those were the days..." Looking for acceptance from the high school cliques, Charlie uses every session with his psychiatrist (to whom he confesses a dream fantasy: "I kind of have this one fantasy. It's just this fantasy of me stepping out on stage, and there are all these kids out in the audience, chanting my name, like I'm a rock star, you know.") to get prescription drugs (Ritalin, Xanax, Zoloft, etc.) which he then sells to his troubled classmates at a bargain price.
While the plot unfolds we can see some similarities with Harold and Maude (1971), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), or Juno (2007), but the references are very blurry and the character of Charlie is in fact original enough to sustain on its own an atmosphere that examines the new anxieties of a fearful, befuddled generation that longs to fit in but is too self-conscious and self-loathing to stand popularity for too long.
All the main characters show us a hidden facet — the principal was a retired history teacher, for example — questioning the usual stereotypes in teen movies. For example Murphey isn't a bitter tough guy, despite videotaping his bullying acts which he sells as "Greatest Afterschool Beatdowns" DVDs. He's also sensitive and has romantic intentions toward a blonde, promiscuous cheerleader, Whitney Drummond (Megan Park). -Murphey: If I'm jealous, it's because only guys like Dustin Lauderbach can get girls like Whitney Drummond. -Charlie: You wanna hook up with Whitney Drummond? -Murphey: No. I want to do it right. That's the kind of girl you go dinner and a movie with.
Another of Charlie's friends/customers, Kip Crombwell (Mark Rendall), is manic-depressive, suffers from panic attacks, and is a frustrated writer. Feeling isolated, he goes to the boy's room and Charlie "the doctor/actor" gives him this recipe: "Murph, start him on 50 milligrams of Zoloft and half a milligram of Xanax as needed." This is an acid moment that serves as a parody of an adult world of zany psychotherapy and pharmaceutical frenzy.
The school principal decides to allow surveillance cameras to be installed around the campus' student lounge. Susan gets more distanced from her dad since she's dating Charlie, who seduces her by playing a piano duet and singing "Yankee Doodle" with an English accent. Susan's father is terrified of losing her affection and calls Charlie to his office, pretending he isn't an alcoholic, overprotective or insecure guy: "If I were one of those dads, I'd probably say how my job is a distant second to my daughter."Susan and Charlie share a revelatory encounter in the bathroom, sharing painful memories of their not so happy experiences: "The night he found out my mother was having an affair." In all these confessional visits to the bathroom, the interlocutor never sees Charlie's face, but in this scene you could feel much more than eye contact — although Susan was separated from him by a wall, they were seeing through it. Charlie's face cannot hide a profound, existential disappointment when Susan talks about her dysfunctional family: "I guess what I'm trying to say is it just... it kind of sucks having one parent ditch and then the other one lose their mind. I mean, how can I possibly hope to turn out even remotely functional?" Kat Dennings is really inspired and sober in this conversation.Charlie expresses an individual, national, and universal crisis: "I get up every morning and I look in the mirror and I try and figure out just where I fit in. And I draw a complete blank. And you guys are looking to me to tell you what to do? You need to stop listening to me."
This is an exceptional, subtle performance by Anton Yelchin, who creates a fully fleshed character who is battling a collective crisis and who responds to it without being over-dramatic or hysterical. "Some days are better than others", he says to Susan's father. And Nathan really understands Charlie in a crucial moment when both have shared too much in few minutes (Downey Jr. is brightly jaded here). DVD extras:
-Commentary track with director John Poll, Anton Yelchin and Kat Dennings: discussion of the movie and scenes involved. -Commentary track with director John Poll and Gustin Nash: they discuss more the technical details of the film, including the script. -Spinal Beach “Voodoo” music video. -Restroom Confessional: On the fullscreen side, several of the actors, in character, riffing with their problems to discuss with Charlie in the bathroom. It’s essentially a gag reel. Published today in blogcritics.org
"With a fixed gaze like that of the dead one can stare for long hours at the smoke rising from a cigarette at the shape of a cup at a faded flower on the rug at a fading slogan on the wall.
One can draw back the drapes with wrinkled fingers and watch rain falling heavy in the alley a child standing in a doorway holding colorful kites a rickety cart leaving the deserted square in a noisy rush. One can stand motionless by the drapes—blind, deaf.
One can cry out with a voice quite false, quite remote “I love…” in a man’s domineering arms. One can be a healthy, beautiful female with a body like a leather tablecloth with two large and hard breasts, in bed with a drunk, a madman, a tramp one can stain the innocence of love. One can degrade with guile all the deep mysteries one can keep on figuring out crossword puzzles happily discover the inane answers inane answers, yes—of five or six letters.
With bent head, one can kneel a lifetime before the cold gilded grill of a tomb one can find God in a nameless grave one can trade one’s faith for a worthless coin one can mold in the corner of a mosque like an ancient reciter of pilgrim’s prayers. one can be constant, like zero whether adding, subtracting, or multiplying. One can think of your --even your—eyes in their cocoo of anger as lusterless holes in a time-worn shoe. One can dry up in one’s basin, like water. With shame one can hide the beauty of a moment’s togetherness at the bottom of a chest like an old, funny looking snapshot, in a day’s empty frame one can display the picture of an execution, a crucifixion, or a martyrdom. One can cover the crake in the wall with a mask one can cope with images more hollow than these.
One can be like a wind-up doll and look at the world with eyes of glass, one can lie for years in lace and tinsel a body stuffed with straw inside a felt-lined box, at every lustful touch for no reason at all one can give out a cry “Ah, so happy am I!”
"The shoot was a blast from start to finish. It was hard work and extremely intensive but this was made all the easier by the people involved. Bob and I hit it off back when the we were discussing my involvement in the project, so I had a friend going in, which always helps. I'd been informed of Kirsten Dunst's involvement at the beginning of the year whilst on the Hot Fuzz press tour of the US. We crossed paths in LA a week or so later whilst she was on Webslinger press duties at the Four Seasons Hotel. I liked her immediately. She was friendly and unassuming and got on well with Nick Frost, which is usually my benchmark for judging people.
And of course, Megan Fox, an actress all too easy to underestimate, due to her striking beauty but one who definitely proves her worth as the "so hot right now" ingenue Sophie Maes. This was a group of people who made getting out of bed at 5.45am as easy as falling asleep 16 hours later.
Early in the shoot, Toby approached Kirsten on set and asked if she had fallen in love with him yet, after which he proceeded to give her a performance note. This might have been charming if they had been formally introduced but they hadn't. As it was, I believe her response was an understandable, "Who the fuck's this guy?" Bob told me that he had received an email from Toby that night saying, "It's going to be really difficult for me to come on set and not get involved." Bob sent him a reply saying that there was an easy solution to that problem. We didn't really see Toby on set again after that".
