Director: Jon Poll
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 1.0
WASP rabble-rouser (Anton Yelchin) gets kicked out of private schools left and right - and is proud of it - and so has to be sent to public school where he teaches the middle class how to rebel (did I mention he also has to work out his Daddy issues?). Ugly little teen picture with all the wrong ideas - the title preppy offers terrible or non-existent advice (when the football captain asks him a serious question, he gives some lame-ass response that could end poorly, though the picture never explores the outcome of this), the security cameras are an unfortunate necessity in post-Columbine America and some kids really do need medication for their problems. It's also deficient in other areas: how come there are no teachers around to find out that Bartlett's turned the bathroom into a pharmacy? How come there's no fallout from the 'rave' thrown in the gymnasium (surely, someone noticed the topless girls)? If Bartlett's so smart about 'fitting in' on the first day of school, why wear the blazer with the emblem on it (he is smart enough to take the bus and not the limo)? Any picture, in general, that shows every single adult in it as being a moron or mess (Bartlett's Dad is in jail, Robert Downey Jr. is an alcoholic who is an ineffectual school leader, Hope Davis' Mom character is clueless, the psychiatrists are shown as being easily-duped pushers) probably isn't trustworthy.
