The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

review

One of the toughest period in someone’s life is finding their own identity during their teen years. Going to a new school and having to find new friends, creating a new “safe group” you can hang out with can be difficult, you find a place you can belong to.

Charlie (Logan Lerman) is one of those kids having trouble with belonging somewhere. He had a hard time at his previous school because of something which happened to him in his past and for which he went into therapy. A new school means a fresh start for him, but it’s hard to know who you will be able to trust. He eventually becomes friends with Patrick (Ezra Miller, who shows he’s got quite an acting range if you compare this performance with We Need to Talk About Kevin) and his friends including Sam (Emma Watson). It doesn’t take long before he is included in the group and slowly finds out that he isn’t the only one with issues.

Most will see this movie as the first opportunity for Emma Watson to prove herself outside of the Harry Potter franchise and I think she does show here that she’s a good actress (I must admit I haven’t seen the last couple of Potter movies, so I only know how she acted when she was a lot younger). But she isn’t the only one worth noting as the whole cast was really strong, almost reminding me of movies like the Breakfast Club.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower was a movie I wasn’t expecting much of going in (have not read the book), but it was a very pleasant surprise. To me it offers the perfect bland of comedy and drama without ever feeling unrealistic. This could be the story of a real group of teenage friends exploring their first love, insecurities, dark sides and friendships.

27 thoughts on “The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

  1. Nice write up. I haven’t actually seen The Breakfast Club but from what i’ve seen it seems along the same kind of lines. If you liked the film so much, I recommend checking the book out. You know the ending now, of course, but it’s still pretty interesting.

    • Thanks Terry. The Breakfast Club is not a masterpiece, but it is an interesting watch. I don’t read many books, so I’ll probably skip doing that for this one. If I read it’s usually science related…

  2. Agreed! Great review. We ended up giving it the same score essentially. I wasn’t sure what to expect on this one and ended up liking it so much. Watson was great and she isn’t the only one worthy of laud.

    Glad you enjoyed this one so much

  3. Good review Nostra. One of my favorites of the year just because of how emotionally heartfelt and sweet it was with it’s premise. I will admit, it’s definitely a better watch if you have just gotten out of high-school and look back on all of the days you used to spend, just waiting for the weekend to come as soon as possible.

  4. When I reviewed this, I noted that it was the biggest surprise of the year for me. I thought it was fantastic. I also mentioned the brat pack while writing. Will it fill those shoes? Probably not. But in decades void of heartfelt coming-of-age stories, this one moves in the right direction.

  5. I really liked this film, but I can’t quite put my finger on why. It’s not overly original in concept, but it is delivered so well that you can’t help but love it. I think it was a bit nostalgic in nature, and that had some bearing on why I really enjoyed it.

  6. I think it helped Emma Watson has gone to school in the US, her accent was flawless. Brit actors playing Americans often have dodgy distracting accents, not so in this film, at least nothing off that I noticed. I think she has the most promising future of the Harry Potter kids.

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