It's a special theme week here on the blog. School let out for college aged kids last month and will be letting out for high school kids in the next week or two. I chose to do the theme this week because next week I'll be taking some summer classes and will not have as much downtime to catch up on flicks. Trying to figure out what to watch it felt like this movie was a great place to start. The conceit of school is to graduate and to move on to the next step in life. This movie is directed by a guy who was trying to graduate from the image that was out there of him at the time. The Education of Charlie Banks is directed by Fred Durst- yes, that Fred Durst.
In the late 90's and early 2000's, Durst was considered to be a bit of a clown to many. He was at the forefront of the rap/rock craze, with his band Limp Bizkit, putting out terrible music for the masses to listen to. In the latter part of the decade though he decided to try his music video directing talents with feature films. This was the first film he directed although it was the second one released to theaters. Also, it is the perfect sort of film for him to attach himself to. But does that mean it's a good film?
Charlie Banks is a kid who is sort of looking for a place to fit in with his group of friends. His best friend comes from a rich friend but doesn't like to admit his family is rich. Charlie likes him but is jealous and doesn't understand why he is so afraid to admit to what he is. Charlie meets Mick Leary through his buddy at a party. Mick gets into a verbal altercation with two jocks at the party and they fight in the street. Well it's a fight of sorts as Mick beats up both jocks with a beer bottle then kicks both in the head leaving them badly injured and requiring hospital stays. Charlie has a pang of conscience here and goes to the police to give a statement about what happened and get Mick put away. Mick gets arrested for a few days but then Charlie pulls his statement letting Mick get set free.
Three years later Charlie and his friend, Danny, are in college and are starting to figure out how they can fit schools and women into the same life. One day Mick shows up at their dorm and Danny invites him to stay a while. Charlie is immediately worried because he doesn't know if Mick knows Charlie ratted him out. To further confuse Charlie, Mick acts at different intervals nice and menacing to Charlie.
The key to Mick being there though is how he begins assimilating to the culture of students at the University. A majority of the kids are rich preppy kids with parents that have big bank accounts and are not afraid to give that money to their kids. Mick gets invited to stay longer and begins wearing clothes Charlie and Danny's friend Leo loans him. He begins reading Charlie's books and auditing his classes. He also begins dating the girl that Charlie has pined for quite a while (played by the absolutely lovely Eva Amurri).
The hitch here is that while Charlie is completely terrified of Mick- he feels a closeness to him. Mick is like Charlie. In fact, they are opposite sides of the same coin. Neither one has money, but Charlie lacks the chameleon like quality that Mick has. It's easy for Mick to drift into this world and become a part of it. In large part because, he isn't really interested in that world. Mick is a schemer and one thing he is good at is being a snake. He can manipulate people to get what he wants out of them. Charlie lacks that ability and quite frankly doesn't want it. However, he can't help but notice how good his life could be if he had a small portion of the same qualities that Mick does. Charlie could have the girl of his dreams and this wonderful life somewhere between not having money and having it. He even begins to question whether the pull of this life could reform someone as lost as Mick. By the end of the movie we get our answer and because it's a coming of age type drama it isn't necessarily a happy ending. In fact, the ending is sort of hokey and overly dramatic. The film does a great job of telling this wonderful story about class assimilation and "fitting in" but then the last scene drops the ball completely. The problem is that the script borrows too heavily at the end and becomes a knockoff of the two works that clearly inspired aspects of it- Raging Bull and The Great Gatsby. Also the shoehorned usage of Derrida wasn't really necessary (And I say that only partly since I read some Derrida stuff recently and wanted to beat him).
However, none of that really detracts from the point that Durst does a nice job here with the directing. The film looks great, and the lighting surrounding Mick as he drifts between menacing and nice is wonderfully done. It's clear that Durst has an eye for what he wants to do and even though it needs some polish, there is a solid foundation here.
Jesse Eisenberg is solid in the lead role and hopefully it stops the comparisons between him and Michael Cera. Eisenberg plays similar roles in films, much like Cera, but Eidenberg finds different nuances in the roles so they aren't all interchangeable. The real find here though is Jason Ritter who plays the sociopath Mick. He finds the correct note as he drifts back and forth in his personalities. and keeps Charlie, and the viewer, guessing. He seethes through his teeth and his looks make you buy into what he is doing even if morally you recognize that it is incredibly wrong.
This is a decent film but there is too much voiceover, and the script is a huge let down as it drags at points and at others it borrows to heavily from other sources. Too often it feels like a greatest hits movie rather than anything unique. It's a shame because it wants to be earnest but can't find a thread of truth to latch onto. Derrida would have his own theory on that.
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