Welcome to the Island of Misfit Toys

Rating: Null/10 (6 August 2014)

"Everybody's going to hurt you. You just have to find the ones worth suffering for." - Bob Marley
An adaptation of his own novel, director Stephen Chbosky's "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" stars Logan Lerman as Charlie, a shy, suicidal teenager. Ostracised at school, Charlie eventually bonds with a group of misfits, including Sam (Emma Watson) and Patrick (Ezra miller), a couple of free-spirits who, like Charlie, are hiding wounds and deep insecurities.
"We accept the love we think we deserve," a character states, the line encapsulating Chbosky's chief theme. Belittled by bigots, homophobes, rapists, abusive boyfriends and judgemental eyes, Chbosky's kids internalise persecution and so learn to hate themselves. Believing themselves incapable of being loved, they then embark on paths of self-destruction. All are eventually saved, however, Chbosky an optimist to the end. The future, art, love, friendship, even drugs and sex, have the power to rehabilitate at best, at worst provide good material for tortured artists; Charlie wants to be a writer.
"Wallflower's" signature song is David Bowie's "Heroes", a ballad about beautiful losers who nevertheless occasionally taste victory. Life sucks, Chbosky says, but you can triumph in the face of adversity with a little help from your buddies, if only for a day. "We are infinite!" Sam screams after hearing Bowie for the first time, silhouetted against traffic lamps as she hurtles through a tunnel. It's a moment of ecstasy, possibility and emancipation, which our cast of kids hope to bottle and preserve and make last forever. But all tunnels end, and everyone's eventually spat back out into the black. The gang cope. They push past dog-eared copies of "The Catcher In the Rye" and moody tunes by The Smiths. They learn to survive, if only because they have few other alternatives.
"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" boasts some fine atmosphere, nice low-light photography and Chbosky's gang of hipsters are infectious. On the flip-side, Charlie and his friends are a giant writer's fantasy – people like this don't quite exist in real life – Emma Watson is miscast, Sam reeks of what Nathan Rabin infamous dubbed "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" clichés, a sexual abuse subplot oozes bad-taste and the film's last act overloads on sentimentality. The film costars the likable John Cusack and Paul Rudd. For contemporary kids, the film has become a minor classic.
8/10 – See "Ghost World", "The Spectacular Now" and "The Wackness".