The Filtnib’s Progress

High school has proved the inspiration for a number of good films. Perhaps it’s not surprising: as a place of ricocheting hormones, frustrated idealism, staffroom intrigue, strictly imposed regulations and dubious hierarchies, schools offer the dramatist a veritable playground of plot twists. Ok so the best tend to fall into two camps: either light, mischievous comedy - see Ferris Bueller (1986), Clueless (1995) and Mean Girls (2004) - or black dystopian satire: Donnie Darko (2001), Alex Payne’s Election (1999), Wes Anderson’s Rushmore (1998), and the iconic Brick (2006).

The exceptions that spring to mind are Dead Poet’s Society (1989), possibly the first film at which I cried, and Gus van Sant’s Elephant (2003); for me, both are all-out tragedies in the Greek and Shakespearian tradition, though of course they play out their calamitous arcs in very different ways.

Anyhow it’s time to dust off your satchels, because on May 8, Charlie Bartlett hits UK cinemas, and it looks as toothsome as a sherbet dib dab. The movie seems to hail from the Ferris Bueller camp, which you’d expect to be to its detriment, as few actors can hope to equal the young Matthew Broderick for charm. Then again, who needs a fanciable student when you’ve got headteacher Robert Downey Jnr. looking so eminently snoggable in a suit and nerd glasses. See, I’m already reverting to my schooldays vocab.