Movie: Charlie BartlettDirector: Jon PollActors: Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey, Jr.Production company: Sidney Kimmel Entertainment

I’m not going to deny that I was a tad apprehensive before I went to this movie. I mean, it’s a teen movie. And what’s the common denominator in teen movies?

Confusion.

Awkwardness.

Confusion.

And finally: acceptance.

If this were say, Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You or The Breakfast Club, I’d totally be down with it. But those movies are too few and too far between for me to expect or even hope for them. When we grow up, there’s a desire to get jaded, even angry, about our middle and high school years. Especially when people get to college. There’s not a day that goes by without some condemnation about “acting high school.” Part of the reason we get angry is because we worry we haven’t changed enough since then, and we haven’t and never will. We’ll grow up with facets of every part of our lives.

In that sense, I see the benefit of showcasing the teen experience. We learn about our present through our past. Teen movies are a time for insight.

It’s a shame so few pull it off.

Suffice to say, I went into this movie with low expectations. I had seen, in passing, that Robert Downey, Jr. played the high school principal, which made me curious. Besides the occasional snafu, such as his quality performance in the less than quality A Scanner Darkly, he’s someone I tend to trust.

And conceptually, my apprehension appeared to be dead on. Starring Anton Yelchin (Hearts in Atlantis, House of D) as the film’s titular character, it follows the journey of Charlie as he, after being expelled from every private school available to the sizeable fortune of his estate, enters public school. He’s laughed at for wearing his old private school uniform, given a swirly for correcting a bully and then forced to sit in front of a psychiatrist and relate these same events to him. But Charlie is likeable in that he takes it all in stride.

But nothing goes quite how you think it would. Charlie opens up a psychiatric clinic in the boy’s bathroom and doles out prescriptions to those in need of help. He researches their conditions, fakes them at his therapy sessions, gets them prescribed to him and gets popular and accepted in the process. End of movie, right?

Wrong. He gets accepted halfway through the movie, and the other half is spent unraveling the consequences. For a moment, the movie takes a turn akin to the one found near the end of Dead Poets Society, and while the result isn’t quite as extreme, it’s symbolic of the kinds of problems a lot of kids in high school face — several of my friends included. Depression. Uncertainty. Fear. Loneliness.

We’ve been there. Deny it if you like, but at least one of those four words struck a chord with you.

The movie carries these messages well, all across the spectrum. Charlie’s mom is the product of the Ramones song “I Wanna Be Sedated,” and Charlie’s love interest’s father, Principal Gardner, is an alcoholic with a gun. The system oppressed the kids at school. The prep girls feel like used condoms, the bullies are beaten by their fathers. The psychiatrist, who doesn’t hear a word anyone says, is the ultra-stereotypical type that we’re all really afraid of. The special-education kids are not some group of people looking to be cut off from the rest of the world.

They’re cliches, but the good ones. Made more so by the performances, especially Yelchin’s, who has excellent body language, expressions, tonal changes and timing. Downey is instantly believable as a father trying to do the right thing, even though he often does the wrong. His daughter Susan (Kat Dennings) isn’t just a throwaway love interest, she has a life of her own.

It’s problems lie in the fact that its roots are in cliches or paying homage to previous great teen films, and not enough on making its own material. The comedy, when it’s around, is strong, but fades in and out of the movie. Also, while I saw past the cliches, I know plenty won’t, for totally understandable reasons. Give it a chance, though, and you’ll probably be surprised.