When Charlie Bartlett (Alpha Dog’s Anton Yelchin) is kicked out of private school for fronting a fake id ring – a misguided attempt to try and win over the approval of his classmates - Charlie is forced to move back home to his family’s opulent estate where his single mother Marilyn (Hope Davis) enrolls him in public school. At first, the affable Charlie has a hard time fitting in, receiving numerous beatdowns from school bully/drug dealer Murphey (Tyler Hilton). However, when Charlie is prescribed Ritalin by his psychiatrist, everything changes.

Charlie and Murphey strike a business partnership, dealing pills of Ritalin for $10 a pop. With his newfound business venture taking off and winning him the affections of the student body, the beguiling Charlie appoints himself resident psychiatrist to the student body, holding sessions in the boys bathroom stalls like a confessional. In his quest for social prominence (i.e. becoming a high school Tony Robbins), he attracts the eye of the fetching drama girl Susan Gardner (The 40-Year Old Virgin’s” Kat Dennings), as well as the ire of the world-weary school principal, who’s also Susan’s father (Robert Downey Jr.). Charlie experiences a meteoric rise in popularity, becoming a guru of sorts to the school’s anxious, adolescent populace, uniting the once-splintered student body against the totalitarian faculty. Unfortunately, prescription medication is serious business, and when a student suffers a psychotic episode, everyone – including Charlie – begins to realize that Charlie isn’t exactly “qualified” for the position.

This marks the directorial debut for Jon Poll, who served as executive-producer on megahit comedy The 40-Year Old Virgin, and the film is oftentimes hilarious. The story of an enterprising high-schooler who turns to nefarious deeds in order to gain acceptance will conjure up comparisons to the equally charming, The Girl Next Door. Similarly, both films require a sizeable suspension of disbelief. The school-wide parties at concert halls, the packed school corridor full of prospective therapy patients, and the side-effects of Ritalin, are just a few greatly exaggerated aspects of the world of Charlie Bartlett.

Furthermore, the finale that the film is building to, taking the form of a controversial school play, doesn’t pack that Rushmore punch. However, if you give in to the charms of Charlie Bartlett, he will no doubt win you over. This is after all Anton Yelchin’s show, and it’s a doozie. It’s an irresistibly charismatic performance, similar to Alpha Dog costar Emile Hirsch’s work in the aforementioned The Girl Next Door. Furthermore, Tom Cruise isn’t the only one who feels that the theme of the effect prescription medication has on adolescents is indeed an important one, and in this capacity the film will draw comparisons to recent indie fare Thumbsucker and The Chumscrubber.

The supporting performances are wonderful, with extra kudos given to Hope Davis as Charlie’s total lush of a mother, and Robert Downey Jr. who, similar to Keanu Reeves in Thumbsucker (where he plays a hippie doctor), pokes fun at his own image by playing a reformed principal who’s again driven to the edge (at one point waving a gun around in one hand and a bottle of booze in the other). Charlie Bartlett isn’t going to change any lives but, like the prescription drugs that Charlie peddles throughout, it will provide an ephemeral sense of pleasure. Furthermore, in a few years time, a poster of the promising Anton Yelchin stands a good chance of replacing Adam Brody’s on my sister’s wall. At that point, you know you’ve hit the big time.