The Perks of Watching This

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2012)

are countless.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a powerful and wonderful film. The performances are top notch, the score great, the songs awesome and themes were heartbreakingly real and deep.
John Hughes cornered the high school market in the 1980s. Were they necessarily real visions of pre-real world youths? Sometimes, but for the most part, they were comical views. Perks physically transported me back years to my days there. Hell, it enhanced my eyes of the surroundings back then.
Introverted freshman Charlie is desperate for friendship in his new High School surroundings. Sure, he gets some from a remarkable teacher, but he's looking for someone his own age.
He does get that, sorta: 3 years older in the form of a great duo of Patrick and Sam. Anyone, including myself, would yearn for such great friends. Patrick's way more outgoing than I was, and that would've attracted me to him tremendously and Sam's so cool without even knowing it.
But, there are deeper messages here, clues to unravel on why Charlie's so quiet and distant. It's heartbreaking learning more about both his past and present.
It took me all year and within 9 days of the next year to find my first five star 2012 film. I loved this movie, from the absolute first shot to the last. I cried, I laughed, I enjoyed life while not even participating in the events in the film. I felt there, I was Charlie.
This movie is near perfection. The acting of all around was excellent with the notable performances of Logan Lerman who owned Charlie, Ezra Miller as flamboyant, funny and fantastic Patrick and Emma Watson who was so good as Sam, it made me completely forget she was ever in the Harry Potter films. (And that's a major positive to me.)
When you can see yourself in these eyes, when you can clinch your fist and want to fight like these characters, you know you have the highest quality of acting. In one scene, one character needs to get out there and defend his friend against punk kids. I would be dead inside, if I didn't put myself in his shoes and want to pound such evil.
Lerman's Charlie was so real, so incredible, it would be a crime not to just hand the Best Actor Oscar over to him.
Aside from the acting, the cinematography, editing and direction were supreme. And the soundtrack was one of the best I've ever heard and I will be buying it shortly. As I will the BluRay of the film once available.
I can't provide enough praise to give this film justice. Rarely will a movie impact me like this, and if no other 2012 films I have yet to see don't come close to this, I will sleep comfortably. This is a gem to appreciate and absorb.