The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Directed by Steven Chbosky
Starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Mae Whitman, and Paul Rudd
Rated PG-13 (sexual content/dialogue, language, drug/alcohol use, strong thematic material)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
sure was a popular book back in 1999. It was released by MTV in 1999 at the end
of their music video phase and represented a type of teen 90s retrospect. The
author, Steven Chbosky, was brought on to direct the film version, an odd move
considering he had no film-making experience. It paid off, and I’d love to see
Chbosky make more movies.
Perks follows Charlie, a
depressed teen who tries his best to fit in during his freshman year of high
school. He makes friends with a flamboyant gay senior Patrick and a somewhat
pretentious ex-slut senior Sam that has terrible taste in men, falling
hopelessly in love with the latter. Charlie keeps a journal full of his
innermost thoughts, and his witty observances of high school hierarchy, and
learns to love old music and new experiences.
If this all sounds kind of passé and
done-before, think again. I mean, it kind of is, but it actually gets to the
heart of the high school experience, exploring every emotion, thought, belief,
and abuse that every teen goes through. Yet it isn’t a statement film. It isn’t
trying to make a statement about violence or cutting or teen pregnancy or drug
abuse…it’s about working through your problems and choosing the right people to
fill your life with. It’s remarkably mature and reserved in spite of all the rotten
shit that happens to the central characters.
Logan Lerman and Emma Watson are
amazing in the film, and should definitely get some Oscar attention, though I
don’t think they will. There are plenty of great smaller performances that
pepper the film. It’s so real, so earnest in its approach that I can’t help but
think that Chbosky was the only choice to bring this to the screen. Keeping it
with the same creator means that he knew exactly what to do to make sure he
tapped into something that we have all felt at some point. It’s funny, too.
Really funny at times.
The only problem with the film is
how it sometimes starts to feel like grief porn, going through so many high
school sadness tropes like bullies, closeted homosexuality, unrequited love,
drugs, suicide, sexual promiscuity…it’s a laundry list that in lesser hands
could feel exploitative. But the deft hands of Chbosky provide grace and
stability- even when the final shocking twist gives it almost a PSA feel. Yet
the characters are somewhat self-aware about how they’ll look back and see how
these are just formative experiences. Patrick even says out loud that his life
has been reduced to an after-school special. It doesn’t break the fourth wall,
but it endeared me to the film in spite of the one major flaw.
High school movies all too often
end up being like Project X or Drillbit Taylor and the like- crude, brain-dead pieces
of cliché and bawdiness. The Perks of
Being a Wallflower manages to steer clear of feeling pretentious or hackneyed.
It rises above the pack and certainly is one of the best films of the year, and
I’ll probably rewatch as much as I rewatch Superbad.
A-
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