Home Run First Time for Stephen Chbosky

Rating: 9/10 (2 October 2012)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is one of the better teen flicks of recent times. While I wasn't familiar with male leads (Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller), they could match wits against the excellent Emma Watson in a movie about early '90s teenage angst. Set in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, novelist/screenwriter/director Stephen Chbosky did a fine job with his first book/script/movie.
One highlight of the movie is that most of the characters are fairly well-developed. Even without knowing everything about him, Sam (Watson) and Patrick (Miller) can tell our hero Charlie (Lerman) is another "misfit toy," just as they are. All of the kids have had trouble in the past or in the present, and they're generally dealing with it. But Charlie, especially, has difficulties. Chbosky shows how Charlie's past problems can't always be hidden, and emerge in some unexpected ways.
The movie makes good use of its Pittsburgh location, particularly with some memorable trips over the Fort Pitt bridge. Any movie that can both cast Tom Savini and give Eide's a plug is good in my book! This movie might be a movie like American Graffiti in the future - a movie with an awful lot of young talent in one place at one time.