Being Charlie (2015)

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Rob Reiner (Stand By Me, Misery) directs a script co-written by his son Nick Reiner about an eighteen-year-old (Nick Robinson) struggling with drug addiction while his father (Cary Elwes) runs for governor. Robinson’s character is in and out of rehab and halfway houses while his dad takes a tough love position that drives a wedge between them.

Some of Being Charlie is fairly predictable — including a rehab love affair (with Morgan Saylor) and the sobering deadly overdose of a friend. But the relationship between father and son turns out to defy convention and the film’s ending is honest enough not to tie everything up with a bow. Robinson carries the movie admirably. Elwes and co-star Devon Bostick, as Robinson’s best friend, have their moments. With Common.