Review: The Perks of Being A Wallflower

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We are infinite.
 
Charlie (Logan Lerman) is a shy freshman that is not looking forward to high school. He has a hard time fitting in and he's haunted by troubles in the past. He takes a chance and approaches a flamboyant senior, Patrick. (Ezra Miller) Patrick introduces Charlie to his music loving step sister, Sam (Emma Watson) and their circle of friends. Charlie finally starts to feel accepted, but he's torn between his crush on Sam, the relationship he's gotten himself into with Mary Elizabeth, (Mae Whitman, who if you remember was bi-furious in Scott Pilgrim vs The World) and the fact that all of his senior friends will be graduating while he's still stuck in school.
 
Logan Lerman is really starting to shine in his best role to date. While Emma Watson, like in the Harry Potter films is the weakest acting link, the show really belongs to Ezra Miller. His character ranges from being the life of the party to broken hearted and Miller easily pulls it off. He commanded attention previously in We Need To Talk About Kevin, and he does so here as well.
 
I've never read the book on which this movie is based on, so the ending surprised me for sure. I can appreciate the places this book/film was willing to go to show how some teens cope with trauma. Even though the message is dark, Perks still manages to have a few laughs and a lot of catchy songs throughout.
 
Recommended: Yes
 
Grade: B
 
Memorable Quote: "...that's fucked up." - Patrick. (Ezra Miller)

Comments

  1. s.October 13, 2012 at 1:24 PM

    Great review! I've been hearing a lot of wonderful things about this one, so I'm definetly going to see it soon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JoshOctober 13, 2012 at 7:44 PM

    Just saw this, and I loved it. Lerman was the highlight for me. He was fantastic.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 13, 2012 at 10:07 PM

    Emma Watson was the weakest acting link in HP? I definitely thought it was Daniel Radcliffe. :-)

    Great review! I am really looking forward to this film.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brittani BurnhamOctober 15, 2012 at 12:14 PM

    Daniel Radcliffe got better after the 3rd movie. (by a lot) In my opinion, Emma Watson never grew. She had the same facial expression through out and continued to over act.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Stevee TaylorOctober 15, 2012 at 5:17 PM

    I want to see this movie more than anything! Not just for Ezra Miller, but because the book was so great and I wanna see how it turns out.

    ReplyDelete
  6. RaghavAugust 26, 2013 at 4:49 AM

    Lovely review. For me this was such an awesome experience. I didn't know about the book and thus had never read it, so the entire story was just great. I think it was probably the most underrated film of last year, and while it tackles the same issues as Silver Linings Playbook, although in a different way, it was much better than that film. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete

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