The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Go! Get high on the wonderful stench of youth.
Oh, to be young.
Charlie (Logan Lerman, Percy Jackson) is our fresh-faced Wallflower. He begins the movie as a high school junior: new school, no friends, abject lonliness; slammed into red lockers, having his textbooks thrown around a corridor lined with aggressive middle fingers. You know, American stuff. Soon (perhaps a little too soon) he finds sanctuary in a friendship with two seniors, Sam (Emma Watson, Harry Potter Series) and her step-brother Patrick (Ezra Miller, We Need to Talk About Kevin) and his life starts to get interesting. Little bits of drugs, alcohol, sex, violence, sexuality and blue & red plastic cups all make important, genre-following appearances.
Although it sounds very typical, rather than colouring this high school story entirely by numbers, the fable is kept in motion by the underlying mystery of Charlie's enforced absence from school for a year before we meet him. The reasons gradually seep out, but his troubled character simmers readily below the surface of this film, urging to boil over. Troubled he may be, but he is also perceptive, intelligent, humble; generous and flawed - a tidy mix of traits for building a likeable character. This will not be lost on you. As he makes new friends, you will very likely become one of them.
Although it sounds very typical, rather than colouring this high school story entirely by numbers, the fable is kept in motion by the underlying mystery of Charlie's enforced absence from school for a year before we meet him. The reasons gradually seep out, but his troubled character simmers readily below the surface of this film, urging to boil over. Troubled he may be, but he is also perceptive, intelligent, humble; generous and flawed - a tidy mix of traits for building a likeable character. This will not be lost on you. As he makes new friends, you will very likely become one of them.
With this enigmatic character, Perks is a deeper film than its horticultural title suggests - far closer to eighties Fame than noughties High School Musical. In many ways it was like watching a prequel to Garden State - the 2004 Zach Braff film so loved by university-going twenty-somethings. Both deal with issues of mental illness, social exclusion and new life experiences in a sincere package.
Set in the nineties (nostalgically noticeable from the exchange of cassette mixtapes and the conspicuous absence of the internet) Perks will probably speak most clearly to the poorly dressed Nirvana-listening children of that era, but there is a clever and broader appeal to this film; not only for those who are close enough to adolescence to remember its ups and downs with great fondness (or horror), but also to those currently indulging in their pre-adulthood illusions of grandeur.
Set in the nineties (nostalgically noticeable from the exchange of cassette mixtapes and the conspicuous absence of the internet) Perks will probably speak most clearly to the poorly dressed Nirvana-listening children of that era, but there is a clever and broader appeal to this film; not only for those who are close enough to adolescence to remember its ups and downs with great fondness (or horror), but also to those currently indulging in their pre-adulthood illusions of grandeur.
Life as a teenager would be nothing without pained love, and Emma Watson shrugs off her vanilla image and becomes all the more bewitching as the too cool for school, senior siren. She performs with panache (and a little bit of heat) and may well have found a springboard for playing a host of fulfilling characters other than Hermione Grainger. Miller also shines as an uncloseted, theatrical gay teen, and others, Paul Rudd (Anchorman) and Mae Whitman (Scott Pilgrim vs the World) engross their supporting roles to make Perks both endearing and memorable.
Despite becoming a little cheesy at points, overall the film offers a little taste of what it meant to be on the cusp of adulthood and in the bleeding heart of youth in the numb nineties. To enjoy it as a wise elder, you'll need to get off your sofa of maturity and sink back into the beanbag of your teens. If you are a teen already, you'll not need to change furniture because you'll inevitably be lying on the floor anyway, bored, greasy-faced and moody, but you'll enjoy it because it deals with all of your "issues", or whatever teens have these days.
Go, if you have a spare 102 minutes and £8.75 in change. It might not transform your life, but it will probably remind you a little of what it used to be like (or what is yet to come).
Despite becoming a little cheesy at points, overall the film offers a little taste of what it meant to be on the cusp of adulthood and in the bleeding heart of youth in the numb nineties. To enjoy it as a wise elder, you'll need to get off your sofa of maturity and sink back into the beanbag of your teens. If you are a teen already, you'll not need to change furniture because you'll inevitably be lying on the floor anyway, bored, greasy-faced and moody, but you'll enjoy it because it deals with all of your "issues", or whatever teens have these days.
Go, if you have a spare 102 minutes and £8.75 in change. It might not transform your life, but it will probably remind you a little of what it used to be like (or what is yet to come).
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