The Education of Charlie Banks

2007 drama

Rating: 11/20

Plot: Charlie Banks, following an uncomfortable experience with a violent guy in high school, encounters the guy again in college.

This was the directorial debut of Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst. I thought, "Surely there's another Fred Durst who directs movies," but nope, this is Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst. I believe Durst is going for something gritty here, but it comes across like an after-school special with violence and cursing. And with worse dialogue. Charlie Banks isn't a likable character, and that really gets in the way of the movie working as a sort-of tough coming-of-age story. It's a low-budget, mishandled and more unbelievable Outsiders. John Ritter's son plays the bully, and there are times when he's genuinely terrifying and other times when he's kind of like a big dumb cartoon character.

Most offensive is a conversation the characters have about deconstructionism that cheaply tries to trick you into thinking the screenplay of this is more intelligent than it actually is.

Here's what Jesse Eisenberg's hair looks like in this movie:

This is also the second movie of my mini-Eisenberg film festival where he's shown playing basketball. Lex Luthor also shoots a little hoop in the superhero movie. In this one, he plays in a polo shirt like the one he's rocking in that picture there. It's really hard to take a character seriously when he plays basketball in a polo shirt. I think I could take Eisenberg one-on-one, by the way.