Being Charlie

Director: Rob Reiner
Year Released: 2015
Rating: 1.0

Teenage addict Charlie Mills (Nick Robinson), the son of a famous actor-turned-politician (Cary Elwes), keeps running from treatment facilities and getting into trouble (with the help of his enabling buddy, played by Devon Bostick), which dear old Dad is worried is going to ruin his campaign for governor of California. I suppose Reiner was, at one time, a decent filmmaker (in the 80's and 90's) but times have changed - I'm not sure what he found in this canned, unsurprising script that would be worth filming, because it's your basic Kid Druggie Blaming His Parents story: affluence as a pathway to heroin. I like the way Charlie's love interest Eva (Morgan Saylor) runs off, never to be seen again - thereby avoiding the whole Happily Ever After ending - although the way it offs Bostick's hedonist (as a sacrificial lamb) is cheap.