Quirky high school student misfits placed on pedestal by film's misguided Writer/Director

Rating: 3/10 (22 September 2012)

'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' is based on Writer/Director Steven Chbosky's 1999 novel of the same name. It actually would be better titled, 'The Perks of Being a Victim'. Set in 1991 Pittsburgh, 'Perks' is the coming of age story of 16 year old high school freshman 'Charlie', played by 20 year old actor, Logan Lerman.
Charlie the Wallflower is an introverted kid who feels ostracized on his first day of high school. It doesn't take long for Charlie to find a clique which he can fit into--a group of senior class 'Bohemian' types led by Patrick (Ezra Miller) and step-sister Sam (Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame).
Patrick is gay, carrying on a clandestine affair with one of the stars of the high school football team. When the shop teacher calls Patrick "Patty" and he responds, "You can call me Patrick or nothing," the teacher pours coals on the fire by insulting him further by calling him "nothing"(I had no idea that a school teacher would face no consequences for bullying a pupil in such a way--even in 1991!).
After all the baddies (mainly high school jocks) begin calling Patrick "Nothing", most of the rest of the kids in the school follow suit. 'Wallflower' Charlie, who also feels ostracized, ends up sticking up for perennial victim Patrick. Completely out of character (and with improbable superhuman strength), Charlie ends up knocking out half of the high school football team after they set upon Patrick in the school cafeteria (okay maybe I'm exaggerating--it wasn't half the team but notice that the awkward editing prevents us from actually seeing exactly how Charlie thwarts the entire assault on Patrick).
Chbosky's characters are no different than many other films that feature a coterie of quirky characters which Patrick refers to as the "Island of Toy Misfits". As is usual for these films involving a clique of quirky characters, they're pitted against an unsavory group of reactionaries (in this case, jocks, along with a bunch of young, belligerent allies). Of course you can count on the quirky kids to have some mild flaws, while the group that hates them, are all pretty unsavory and despicable.
What sets Chbosky's quirky misfits apart from other recent quirky characters of this ilk, is that their machinations are firmly ensconced in the era of the early 90s. If there is any charm in this heavy-handed film, it's all in the allusions to the pre-internet era. Do you remember 'Mixtapes'? The kids mix their favorite songs on cassette tapes and pass them around to each other. The quirky kids also have a penchant for the avant-garde--participating in live presentations during weekly screenings of 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show'.
Perhaps the central failing of 'Perks' is Chbosky's paper thin plot. Most of the film focuses on Charlie's puerile infatuation with Sam and all of that silly puppy love he has no desire to suppress. Why should we really care for Charlie's obsession with Sam, especially when her character is so poorly developed? Just about the only thing we learn about her is that she was molested as a child and raped by boys who get her drunk--events confirming her status as perennial victim).
There is also a comic sub-plot (few laughs!) involving Charlie's brief 'romance' with 'Mary Elizabeth', a Buddhist and vegan whose big mistake is to go out with a guy like Charlie, who is clearly obsessed with 'another woman' from the get go. Charlie's obsession is made clear during the 'truth or dare' scene where he kisses Sam on the lips in front of Mary Elizabeth (this elicited a gasp from the mostly teen-aged audience populating the theater I attended).
Obviously Charlie's one-note infatuation and the 'us vs. them' theme was not enough to carry an entire movie, so Chbosky had to throw in some cheap melodrama to tidy things up. I'm referring of course to Charlie's mental problems, stemming from the traumatic death of his aunt when he was a child and the purported sexual abuse he endured at the hands of said aunt before her said demise. After this 'setback' (where he joins hands as a full-fledged victim with his fellow sufferer, Patrick), he can now work his way 'back' to sanity and eventually pretentiously declare along with his fellow quirky misfits (with a straight face), "we are infinite" (as he stares up at the sky through the roof of Patrick and Sam's pickup, hurtling through a tunnel).
It's no accident that 'Perks' was produced by the very same people who gave us 'Juno', that revolting anti-abortion tearjerker. Nonetheless, 'Perks' is not a complete lost cause. Despite being acted by actors chronologically older than the high school students they portray, they uniformly do a pretty good job. Ezra Miller steals the show as the flamboyant Patrick and Paul Rudd is memorable as the sagacious and helpful English teacher.
I guarantee that all those who loved 'Perks' also loved 'Little Miss Sunshine'. Both promote the unhealthy idea of a coterie of quirky misfits who are superior to a group of stick-figure reactionaries pitted against them. By promoting this illusory dichotomy, Mr. Chbosky has done a disservice to true Bohemians everywhere--certainly such true libertarians do not perceive themselves as victims and would not like other misguided souls such as Mr. Chbosky, to impugn them with such a label.