A throwaway shot of Charlie Bartlett’s eponymous lead character (Anton Yelchin) in his skivvies and a pair of sunglasses hints at the not-so-risky-business being undertaken by the filmmakers: writer Gustin Nash and director John Poll are taking inventory of upscale teen-rebellion flicks, borrowing the central joke of Rushmore (preppy boy gets deposited in public school), appending the druggy angst of Pump Up the Volume and the clique clichés of John Hughes and hoping that their junior-Tom Cruise lead will have enough charisma to carry the day.

He doesn’t, but Charlie Bartlett isn’t Yelchin’s debacle: he takes his ridiculous role — a pampered rich kid peddling anti-depressants and prefab psycho-babble to his peers — and hits all the right tics and smirks. The fault lies mostly with Nash, whose pat thematic trajectories — Charlie’s acting out cuz his dad’s in the big house; his antipathy towards the principal (Robert Downey Jr.), who also happens to be his new girlfriend’s father (Kat Denning) is also touched by daddy issues — mirror his deadly obvious plotting. What are the odds that one of Charlie’s pill-poppers will topple the whole enterprise by ODing? (Because drugs don’t, like, solve problems.) The script’s treatment of depression and addiction is glib at best — Downey may be doing something courageous by playing an alcoholic, but his character’s drinking problem is slightly less credible than Robert Hays’ in Airplane! — and the insincerity proves pervasive.