The Education of Charlie Banks (2007)

College student Charlie Banks has to face old problems when the bully he had an unpleasant encounter with back in high school shows up on his campus.

Director:

Fred Durst

Writer:

Peter Elkoff

Stars:

Jesse Eisenberg, Jason Ritter, Eva Amurri Martino

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jesse Eisenberg	...	Charlie
Jason Ritter	...	Mick
Chris Marquette	...	Danny
Eva Amurri Martino	...	Mary (as Eva Amurri)
Sebastian Stan	...	Leo
Gloria Votsis	...	Nia
Alex Guarino	...	Buzzy Tim
Danny A. Abeckaser	...	Arresting Officer
Jason Anthony	...	Basketball Player
Declan Baldwin	...	Detective Lazaroff
Emily Camara Boisseau	...	Girl In Danny's Class (as Emily Boisseau)
Dennis Boutsikaris	...	Mr. Banks
Miles Chandler	...	Young Mick
Jessica Conlan	...	Sarah (as Jessica Conlon)
Sam Daly	...	Owen

Storyline

The Education of Charlie Banks is a coming of age tale that spans from the playgrounds of lower Manhattan to the idyllic greens of a fictional liberal arts college in upstate New York. Set during the eighties, it is a story about change, inevitability, and ultimately, about facing one's fears.

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Plot Keywords:

low budget film | college | campus | student | college student | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for pervasive language, some violence, sexual content, and drug and alcohol use

Did You Know?

Goofs

After Charlie finds out that Mick beat up Leo, he goes to search for Mary. When she doesn't answer her dorm room door, we see him run into a white building. The camera dollies in towards the entrance and at the bottom of the frame you can clearly see the dolly track laid out.

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Quotes

Charlie: You take something apart and you see all its threads and you see that all of these threads have different meanings and you kind of examine how these meanings are imposed upon these threads. You kind of reveal the contradictions and inconsistencies and you see that there's no one truth expressed by that thing. You see that there's no absolute truth.

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Connections

Edited into The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Echelon Conspiracy/Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li/Crossing Over (2009)

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Soundtracks

I Only Have Eyes for You
Music by Harry Warren
Lyrics by Al Dubin
Performed by The Flamingos

User Reviews

An Unwanted Learning Experience

I guess some folks who were young during the Reagan Era got a little nostalgic flashback when seeing The Education Of Charlie Banks. It's a perfect brat pack movie, even being set during the Eighties. And some of today's younger players looked pretty good in Eighties fashions.

Jason Ritter is the one who educates young Charlie Banks who is played by Jesse Eisenberg. If this were made in 1987 their roles would have been played by Rob Lowe and James Spader respectively. In fact the film has some similarity to a film they did co-star in back in the day called Bad Influence.

Eisenberg is this nerdy rich kid who has been fascinated by tough kid Ritter since childhood. At one point he called the police on Ritter after at a party Ritter beat up and left two others badly injured, but later recanted and Ritter was set free.

Years later while at college Ritter comes to visit, ostensibly to visit Eisenberg's roommate Chris Marquette who also knew Eisenberg back in the day. He insinuates himself into college life, maybe a little too much.

Jason Ritter does a fine job in displaying both charisma and tension at the same time. We know what a violent individual he is, we can never know what little thing might set him off. And does he know exactly what Eisenberg almost did to him years ago?

Sebastian Stan is also in the cast playing what back in the day would be called a wastrel. Here he's just a rich kid floating through the halls of higher learning, just training to be a wastrel. I've met a few like that before and after and Stan's portrayal rings true. I did kind of like what Ritter did to him.

The Education Of Charlie Banks takes you back to 1985 to what some call the good old days.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 April 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Education of Charlie Banks

Filming Locations:

Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$8,538, 29 March 2009

Gross USA:

$15,078

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$15,078

Company Credits

Production Co:

Charlie Banks, Myriad Pictures, Straight Up Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1