Taglines: We accept the love we think we deserve.
Charlie was bullied and largely friendless in middle school for being a shy bookworm, the same which he vows not to happen as he enters his freshman year in high school, although he will have to navigate those hallways on his own, as who was his only true friend, Michael, committed suicide just before the summer. Charlie’s year does not start well as the only person whom he seems to connect with is his Advanced English teacher, Mr. Anderson, who can see that Charlie is the one person in the class who truly does enjoy literature for literature’s sake and not just as a means to a good grade.
However, Charlie is eventually befriended by some seniors, step-brother and sister Patrick and Sam, and their small group of friends, Mary Elizabeth, Alice and Bob who all consider themselves misfits. Even with this accepting group, Charlie admits he still doesn’t know how to act around people, a misstep which could threaten those friendships. If a misstep is to occur, it probably would concern his growing attraction for Sam, who is dating a college student named Craig.
All Charlie does know is that his blackouts, letters he writes to his “friend”, and specific flashbacks – his conscious and subconscious coping mechanisms – have lessened the more he has spent time with these friends. But he may not be able to escape fully his past, specifically issues about who he considered the person he loved most in the world before meeting Sam, namely his now deceased Aunt Helen.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a 2012 American coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, based on Chbosky’s 1999 novel of the same name. Logan Lerman stars as a teenager named Charlie who writes to an unnamed friend, and these epistles chronicle his trials, tribulations, and triumphs as he goes through his first year of high school. The film depicts his depression and anxiety as he goes through his journey in high school making new friends. The film’s ensemble cast also features Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Mae Whitman, Kate Walsh, Dylan McDermott, Nina Dobrev, Johnny Simmons, Erin Wilhelmi, Melanie Lynskey, Paul Rudd and Joan Cusack.
The film premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2012, followed by the United States’ theatrical release on September 21, 2012, by Summit Entertainment. It received positive critical response and commercial success, earning $33.4 million to a budget of $13 million. It received several accolades, including the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, two Critics’ Choice Movie Awards nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay for Chbosky, and the 2013 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film – Wide Release.
Film Review for The Perks of Being a Wallflower
All of my previous selves still survive somewhere inside of me, and my previous adolescent would have loved “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” The movie has received glowing reviews, and some snarky ones that seem to have been written by previous adults. The film is about an alienated high-school freshman who sees himself as a chronic outsider, and then is befriended by a group of older kids who embrace their non-conformist status.
The movie confirms one of my convictions: If you are too popular in high school, you may become so fond of the feeling that you never find out who you really are. The film is based on Stephen Chbosky’s best-selling young-adult novel, which was published in 1999 and is now on many shelves next to The Catcher in the Rye. It offers the rare pleasure of an author directing his own book, and doing it well. No one who loves the book will complain about the movie, and especially not about its near-ideal casting.
The story, set in the early 1990s, tells the story of Charlie (Logan Lerman), who begins it as a series of letters to a “friend.” He enters high school tremulously and without confidence, and is faced on his first day by that great universal freshman crisis: Which table in the lunchroom will they let me sit at? Discouraged at several tables, he’s welcomed by two smart and sympathetic seniors.
They are Sam and Patrick, played by Emma Watson in her own coming-of-age role after the “Harry Potter” movies, and Ezra Miller, who was remarkable as an alienated teenager in “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” Charlie makes the mistake of assuming they are a couple, and Sam’s laughter corrects him; actually, they’re half-siblings. Charlie is on the edge of outgrowing his depression and dorkdom, and is eerily likable in his closed-off way. One of the key players in his life is the dead aunt (Melanie Lynskey) he often has imaginary meetings with.
Patrick is tall, gangly and gay; Sam is friendly and lovable. Charlie gets a quick crush on her, but she explains she has a b.f. and encourages his friendship. Through them, he meets the quasi-punk Mary Elizabeth (Mae Whitman), who definitely is interested in dating him, and a pothead named Bob (Adam Hagenbuch), who nudges Charlie toward adventures most teenagers have once in life, and few should have twice.
We learn a lot about their high school crowd by finding out they’re instrumental in the local midnight showings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” When Charlie is unexpectedly pressed into service playing a key role one night during their performance, it provides him with a turning point that may be contrived but is certainly entertaining.
Their crowd is artsy, outsider, non-conformist. They become the influence that rescues Charlie from his deep insecurity and his depression over the suicide of a friend; they teach him it’s OK to be who he is. In his first year, he learns a little, very tentatively, about sex, drinking and drugs, and a lot about friendship.
He’s also guided by Mr. Anderson (Paul Rudd), his English teacher, who steers him toward seminal books including, yes, The Catcher in the Rye. Why is it that English, drama and music teachers are most often recalled as our mentors and inspirations? Maybe because artists are rarely members of the popular crowd.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Directed by: Stephen Chbosky
Starring: Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Kate Walsh, Patrick de Ledebur, Dylan McDermott, Johnny Simmons, Nina Dobrev, Julia Garner, Nicholas Braun, Chelsea Zhang, Emily Marie Callaway
Screenplay by: Stephen Chbosky
Production Design by: Inbal Weinberg
Cinematography by: Andrew Dunn
Film Editing by: Mary Jo Markey
Costume Design by: David C. Robinson
Set Decoration by: Merissa Lombardo
Art Direction by: Gregory A. Weimerskirch
Music by: Michael Brook
MPAA Rating: PG-13 on appeal for mature thematic material, drug and alcohol use, sexual content including references, and a fight – all involving teens.
Distributed by: Summit Entertainment
Release Date: September 21, 2012
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