One of the Greatest Coming of Age Stories Ever Put To Film

Rating: 9/10 (16 March 2016)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is directed by Stephen Chbosky and is based on his best selling book of the same title. The story follows Charlie (Logan Lerman), a wallflower, or someone who always watches his life take place all while on the sidelines, as he enters his freshmen year of high school. He's always been socially awkward, having no friends and nobody that really cares about him besides his family. That is, before he meets two seniors, Sam (Emma Watson), a cool, rock and roll loving girl, and her stepbrother Patrick (Ezra Miller), a funny guy that makes fun of teachers rather than the freshmen. These two seniors take him in, and this is when Charlie finally begins to live his life for himself, rather than just watching it happen.
This film is very underrated in my opinion. Most critics liked it, but it doesn't seem to get the attention that I feel it deserves. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is truly one of the best coming of age movies of all time. I would even go as far as to compare it to films such as The Breakfast Club (1985) or Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). This film covers all types of people, from shy, to outgoing, to smart, to "cool," to just about everything. Anybody, I feel, can relate to this movie in one way or another. Whether it be family issues, social issues, or just not having too many friends, anybody can make a personal connection.
Stephen Chbosky is an author, yet his work with the camera is very impressive. Although it's nothing to fanboy over, it's very far from bad. No camera angle looks sketchy, and all of the wide shots, mostly of the city scape, is directed very well. Although there's no action involved with Perks, there's a couple upbeat scenes, and the camera captures the enthusiasm very well. I was rather impressed seeing better directing coming from an author than many famous directors can achieve (cough, Michael Bay).
The acting is also very nice. Logan Lerman does great as Charlie, especially with the dark background he comes from. Without spoiling anything, there are things in Charlie's childhood that he's not fond of, and he has a hard time dealing with them. Lerman portrays this character amazingly, and it surprises me that this guy hasn't gotten more roles. Seriously, Logan Lerman is a very underrated actor, and that may be due to some of his past films, such as The Lightning Thief (2010). Ezra Miller did fine. He didn't really bring anything too exciting to his role, but it's not like he did bad. He definitely embodied his character, Patrick, pretty well. Emma Watson did amazing as Sam, showing that she's not just the little girl from the Harry Potter franchise. She can really own other roles, much like she did this one. Her casting choice was absolutely a good one.
The last positive I'd like to mention with The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the overall theme. The theme, simply stated, is that anybody can be anything. No matter where you come from, or who you are, you can be whoever you want to be. Many other films have given off this same tone, and are considered some of the greats. Perks also realizes this theme, and pulls it off magnificently, thanks to its characters, directing, and amazing plot. Although this movie is based off of a book, it feels very original, and that's probably due to the author of the book directing the film. That's one big thing this movie has in its corner.
Now, the only bad quality identifiable throughout this movie is how the film skips around a bit. There are multiple subplots in Perks, but that's not where my issue lies. My problem is how the movie will focus on one of said subplots for a while, and then just jump to a different one, without warning or too smooth of a transition. This could've been fixed easily, just by grinding out the edges of the transitional scenes, and making the switch to the next subject not so jumpy. Like I mentioned, very nitpicky, but it's there.
Overall, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is one of the greatest coming of age films of all time, and really deserves more credit than it usually receives. I'm going to give The Perks of Being a Wallflower an A-, or a 9 out of 10.