Being Charlie **** (2015, Nick Robinson, Cary Elwes, Common, Devon Bostick, Morgan Saylor, Susan Misner, Ricardo Chavira) – Classic Movie Review 13,835

Director Rob Reiner’s 2015 drama film Being Charlie is hard to watch, but rewarding. It is based on Nick Reiner’s experiences with his heroin addiction and homelessness, and on his relationship with his father.

Director Rob Reiner’s 2015 independent drama film Being Charlie is hard to watch, but rewarding. Written by Nick Reiner and Matt Elisofon, the film is based on Nick Reiner’s experiences with his heroin addiction and homelessness, and on his relationship with his father. It stars Nick Robinson, Cary Elwes, Devon Bostick, Morgan Saylor, Susan Misner, Common, and Ricardo Chavira.

Nick Robinson plays Charlie, the addicted 18-year-old son of a former actor and would-be California governor (Cary Elwes). Charlie starts to goes down the long, rough road of rehab, fighting against recovery, the people who are trying to help him and his father every inch of the way. Charlie’s father blackmails him with a lie to force him to stay in rehab or he’ll be dumped in jail.

It keeps it light, bright and on the surface, to try to be entertaining, but there’s no escaping the dark facts it presents in drama form. It is, as it has to be, upsetting. Nick Robinson is way too squeaky clean and pretty to be entirely Charlie, but he’s a very good actor and up for it and into it, giving a powerful, intense and detailed performance. Cary Elwes is a nice surprise as his troubled dad, quite excellent, pitching it just right. Though there’s an unlikely romance with a girl, fellow addict Eva (Morgan Saylor), built in to the plot, plus a buddy-buddy theme with his best pal (and dealer) Adam (Devon Bostick), as well as a kindly if helpless, easily dominated mother (Susan Misner), the story is really all about the father and son, and that is, appropriately, how it ends (open endedly).

It isn’t entirely credible, or always sure of itself, but some of the scenes and dialogue are searingly effective, and it wears its heart on its sleeve all through, begging for love and approval. It is reasonable and easy to reciprocate. There is just no way it could be more decent and well meaning. It’s not a great film, maybe, but it is a good one, carefully made, tip-toeing gently through a minefield. And one from the heart.

Being Charlie is a semi-autobiographical feature about director Rob Reiner’s relationship with his son, or rather Nick Reiner’s relationship with his father, so it is completely wrong to talk about the script’s ‘surfeit of clichés’. Real life is full of clichés. It is simply a moving true story.

Principal photography began in April 2015 and ended on May 7, 2015. It was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on September 14, 2015, and released by Paladin on May 6, 2016 (US).

Runtime: 98 minutes.

Rob Reiner directed Cary Elwes in the 1987 American fantasy adventure comedy film The Princess Bride.

Nick Robinson (born March 22, 1995) is known for The Kings of Summer (2013), Jurassic World (2015) The 5th Wave (2016), Everything, Everything (2017), and Love, Simon (2018).

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,835

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