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The Education of Charlie Banks

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The Education of Charlie Banks
Promotional film poster
Directed byFred Durst
Written byPeter Elkoff
Produced byMarisa Polvino
Peter Elkoff
StarringJesse Eisenberg
Jason Ritter
Eva Amurri
Gloria Votsis
Chris Marquette
CinematographyAlex Nepomniaschy
Edited byEric L. Beason
Music byJohn Swihart
Distributed byAnchor Bay Entertainment
Release dates
  • April 27, 2007 (2007-04-27) (Tribeca)
  • March 27, 2009 (2009-03-27)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million
Box office$15,078

The Education of Charlie Banks is a 2007 American drama film directed by Fred Durst, produced by Straight Up Film's Marisa Polvino and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Jason Ritter, Eva Amurri, Gloria Votsis, and Chris Marquette. It had its world premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the Made in NY Narrative Award. It is Durst's film directing debut. Peter Care was initially attached to direct.[1] The Education of Charlie Banks received mixed reviews from critics who praised Ritter's performance but criticized Peter Elkoff's screenplay and Durst's direction.

Plot

As a kid, Charlie Banks both admired and feared the charismatic and violent local Mick Leary; in high school, Charlie witnesses Mick beat two jocks nearly to death at a party. Despite Mick being the buddy of his best friend, Danny, Charlie reports Mick to the police.

Three years later, Charlie and Danny are college freshmen. Mick, to their surprise, shows up for a visit. Though claiming to be visiting for the weekend, Mick moves into the two friends' dorm and begins borrowing their clothing, attending their classes, reading their books, and flirting with Mary, a woman on whom Charlie has a crush. Charlie begins to wonder if Mick has changed or if he is plotting fiendish revenge against him.

Cast

Release

The film premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won Best New York Narrative.[2] It received a limited release in North America on March 27, 2009, before being released on DVD three months later on June 30, 2009.[3]

Reception

The Education of Charlie Banks garnered mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 48% of 31 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "Unevenness and earnestness mire this otherwise sweet, surprising coming of age drama."[4] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 50 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[5]

Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times wrote that: "Durst's direction is overly earnest, heavy in long takes, atmosphere wise but scene foolish."[6] Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News praised Eisenberg for giving a "nicely understated performance" as an "endearing everyman" but felt that Ritter lacked the "necessary air of danger" the script calls for in his role.[7] Norman Wilner of NOW felt that Durst delivered "an overwhelmingly safe movie", criticizing Elkoff's script for having "simple dramatic constructions" and "measured steps" in its plot, and Eisenberg for giving a "blandly conceived version" of the characters he usually portrays, concluding that: "He does the required stammering and shrugging, but it's a tossed-off turn in a movie that’s similarly on autopilot."[8]

Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times praised the film for Durst's detail-oriented direction in capturing the early '80s, and the "sincere performances (most notably from Mr. Ritter and Eva Amurri as Charlie's upper-crust crush) and clever writing" for keeping it from being "maudlin" and for serving as "a prickly examination of the sturdiness of class boundaries and the illusion of inclusion."[9] Greg Quill of the Toronto Star pointed out that Elkoff's script carried elements of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his novel The Great Gatsby and had predictable revelations, but gave praise to the "sensitively and intelligently" written characters and Durst for being a storyteller with "great care and assurance" and an attention to detail regarding the film's time period without being showy about it, calling it "an earnest, if romanticized, examination of the American class system in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the eternally confounding politics of acceptance and exclusion."[10]

Despite skeptically regarding Durst's attempt to evoke viewer sympathy for the rebel Mick, Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman applauded Ritter's "theatrical chops," comparing him to a "young Ethan Hawke on a bender of violence," and called him "an actor to watch."[11] Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter criticized Elkoff's writing for being "overtly literate" and Durst's direction for "underscoring the obvious," but commended the latter for his ability to "establish the specifics of place and time" with the film's setting, and craft an "impressively acted ensemble" with his young performers, highlighting Ritter's portrayal of Mick as having "a believably brooding intensity with a bad boy swagger," drawing parallels to the widely acclaimed performances of a young Matt Dillon.[12]

References

  1. ^ Fleming, Michael (October 4, 2004). "Duo nail 4-pic package". Variety. Archived from the original on September 24, 2022. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
  2. ^ "Tribeca Film Festival Awards History" (PDF). Tribeca Film. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 February 2011. Retrieved April 12, 2011.
  3. ^ "The Education of Charlie Banks". Moviefone. Retrieved April 12, 2011.
  4. ^ "The Education of Charlie Banks". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved April 17, 2021. Edit this at Wikidata
  5. ^ "The Education of Charlie Banks Reviews". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Archived from the original on December 4, 2015. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  6. ^ Abele, Robert (March 27, 2009). "The Education of Charlie Banks". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 29, 2009. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  7. ^ Neumaier, Joe; Weitzman, Elizabeth (March 27, 2009). "Short takes: 'Cindy Sherman,' 'Charlie Banks,' 'American Swing'". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on August 22, 2009. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  8. ^ Wilner, Norman (April 14, 2009). "The Education of Charlie Banks". NOW. Archived from the original on April 17, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  9. ^ Catsoulis, Jeannette (March 27, 2009). "Probing Class Consciousness". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  10. ^ Quill, Greg (April 17, 2009). "The Education of Charlie Banks: Public dreams, private school". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  11. ^ Gleiberman, Owen (March 25, 2009). "The Education of Charlie Banks". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on September 26, 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  12. ^ Rechtshaffen, Michael (March 26, 2009). "The Education of Charlie Banks". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on July 2, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
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