Based upon the novel by Stephen Chbosky
Written and Directed by Stephen Chbosky
**** (four stars)
I am recalling a moment from high school that is simultaneously small yet unforgettable.
The setting was my high school gymnasium. The event was an assembly of some sort, of which my memory, while hazy, is informing me that it had something to do with the bestowing of some student awards. What my memory is not hazy about is what I was doing and how I was feeling. It was sometime during the beginning months of my Senior year in 1986 when I was 17 years old. I was sitting in the bleachers with my ever present headphones strapped to my ears and my fingers were flipping the tuning dial through the static filled radio stations for a few moments. I stopped when I heard the sound of a lonely Hammond Organ, soulfully melodic bass guitar, spacious drums and an earnest voice soaring over it all. The song was "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House. It was the first time I had heard the song and inexplicably, the music merged with the sights in front and around me, solidifying the moment forever into something that I remember the instant I hear the song to this very day.
I guess for me and my spirit, the song, the gymnasium, the assembly and the time when I could begin to see the end of the high school tunnel all intertwined. It was a moment where I felt to be a central part of the high school experience while also feeling thankfully and miserably upon the fringes. There I was, engaging with a shared experience with people I had known for nearly ten years of my life and I felt as alone as if I had just begun at my school that very day. I was indeed blessed to have friends and tended to have a certain ease with attaining them but also, I was frightened and therefore resigned to the fact that there was nothing special about me and if there was, no one would ever be interested enough to try and find it. I had not been accepted to any colleges at that time yet and in fact, I still had SATs and ACTs to take (and re-take). I knew that I wanted nothing more than to be enrolled in the University Of Wisconsin-Madison but with the combination of my mediocre grades plus feeling like a failure for not living up to the rigid expectations of my uncompromising educator parents, my hopes for a bright future also seemed to be desperately far away. And of course, my love life, such as it was, remained sadly stagnant. Yes, I was as consumed with unrequited crushes as I had ever been, but at that time, I was soon to experience a swift yet painful break-up with the college girl I had surprisingly shared an intensely passionate kiss with the previous Spring. So, there I sat on those bleachers, with Crowded House unknowingly providing me with a life soundtrack moment, augmenting my serious loneliness, uncertainty about my own future and the deepest wishes for some sense of deliverance from my own ever mounting lack of self confidence. I was at once connected to everything and absolutely nothing.
This afternoon, I experienced a motion picture that completely nailed that precise example of adolescent angst and heartbreak so tenderly and masterfully that the film as a whole is a work of sheer beauty. Author Stephen Chbosky makes for a stellar directorial debut with "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower," his adaptation of his own celebrated novel. Two years ago, I remarked emphatically that Director Will Gluck and Screenwriter Bert V. Royal's sensational high school satire "Easy A" was the very best teen film that I had seen in over 20 years as I felt it stood as tall as the finest of Writer/Producer/Director John Hughes' oeuvre. With "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower," that particular bar has been set even higher. In my recent tribute to Paul Feig and Judd Apatow's sublime television series "Freaks And Geeks," I gave my contempt for a youth obsessed industry that has habitually served its young audience so insipidly by treating teenagers as nothing but commodities and refusing to offer any sort of entertainment that can be artful. Stephen Chbosky has nearly single-handedly remedied this travesty through his film which, among others wonders, just performs the audacious act of treating teenagers with hearts, souls, humor, intelligence, and ultimately as three dimensional human beings worthy of having their story told with class and empathy. I can truly count on less than ten fingers the amount of teen related material I have held high esteem for since "The Golden Age Of Teen Films" concluded with Writer/Director Cameron Crowe's iconic "Say Anything..." back in 1989. You may count "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower" as one of those rare films. This is a must see!
Set during the early 1990s in a Pittsburgh suburb, "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower" stars a most impressive Logan Lerman as Charlie, a quiet, introverted young man who is not only filled with dreams of becoming a writer, has intense anxiety over beginning his Freshman year of high school but is also moving forward after experiencing a personal tragedy (don't worry, dear readers...NO SPOILERS!!). As he struggles to navigate the high school hallways and an ever intimidating social structure, he is soon befriended by his kind hearted English teacher Mr. Anderson (a nicely sympathetic Paul Rudd), an act that certainly does nothing to ingratiate Charlie with his classmates.
While attending a high school football game, Charlie finally strikes up the nerve to begin a conversation with Patrick (Ezra Miller), an openly gay and sharply sarcastic, smart mouthed Senior with whom he shares Shop class. Through Patrick, Charlie then meets Sam (Emma Watson), also a Senior, Patrick's step-sister and social outcast as she has been branded for being promiscuous in her past. Patrick and Sam take Charlie under their respective wings, introducing them to their collective, which Sam identifies as "The Island Of Misfit Toys." Among the group, we meet the sardonic punk Buddhist Mary Elizabeth (a wonderful Mae Whitman) and her sidekick Alice (Erin Wilhelmi), who houses dreams of one day entering film school. Feeling invigorated and elevated with his new acceptance into this close knit group of friends, Charlie receives a crash course in house parties, getting stoned from pot enhanced brownies, performing live on movie theater stages to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," and most importantly, obtaining the camaraderie that arrives with the sharing of stories, hopes and fears with the ones who understand him best and accept him for who he is.
Yet, as it goes with the nature of friendships, especially through adolescence, all is not sunshine and rainbows. As conflicts and misunderstandings emerge, Charlie's standing with the very people he has grown to love threatens to fracture. But, unbeknownst to Sam and Patrick, any possible dissolution between them will undoubtedly threaten to unravel Charlie's life.
Stephen Chbosky's "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower" is one absolutely beautiful film. It utilizes a "year in the life" structure so effectively that you do indeed feel as if you have spent a transformative period in the lives of Charlie, Sam and Patrick so intimately, perceptively and so tenderly. While not without humor (and the film is often quite funny), "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower" is a moodier, darker and much more serious affair than films about teenagers usually are and that real world teenagers usually have presented to them. In addition to the standard adolescent rites of passage, Chbosky gives us a suburban world where Charlie and his friends are also faced with issues of child/parent and romantic relationship abuse, closet homosexuality, bullying, debilitating depression, potential suicide and crippling bouts of grief, guilt and mourning. Yet, Chbosky never allows his film to fall into histrionic melodrama by allowing the story to unfold and having the characters reveal themselves naturally. By doing so, Chbosky has created an emotionally fragile and melancholy world that makes "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower" a perfect film for a sad, autumnal afternoon or either a cold, rainy day. In fact, on several occasions, the film gave me memories of Writer/Director/Actor Zach Braff's "Garden State" (2004), another film that struck a similar sorrowful tone but was completely undone by its adherence to self congratulatory ironic hipness. Thankfully, Stephen Chbosky never falls into those sorts of storytelling traps as his obvious affection for his characters and this pivotal time of their lives is paramount and deserving of the utmost respect and sympathy.
I thoroughly enjoyed all of the pop cultural touchstones set within this story so much so that I wondered if Chbosky was offering some sort of social commentary for how we relate to each other in the 21st century as compared to the early 90s before the technological sea change of the internet and cell phone culture. It was fascinating to me that Charlie, Sam, Patrick, their friends and lovers all communicate and are emotionally fulfilled through the art and artistry of the past. In addition to bonding over "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (which I wondered was a nod to Director Alan Parker's brilliant "Fame" from 1980), the film's main trio adores the game changing alternative music from the likes of XTC and The Cocteau Twins. The music of The Smiths (a band tailor made for sensitive, lonely, introverted teens if there ever was one), particularly the suicide hymn "Asleep," plays a crucial role while David Bowie's classic "'Heroes'" also plays a major role within the story. Sam carries a passion for vinyl and record stores, Mary Elizabeth longs to experience the sophistication of foreign films and another character named Ponytail Derek (Nicholas Braun) creates specially designed artwork for his personal mixtapes, another source of handmade communication used between the characters. Even Charlie wears a "Jesus Christ Superstar" t-shirt when he is not otherwise wearing a suit designed to make him look like a Salinger-esque teen from long ago. His relationship with Mr. Anderson is fueled through the passing of literature for extra-curricular assignments, some of which are Anderson's own personal copies from his youth. Furthermore, the letters Charlie writes to an unknown recipient (always addressed as "Dear Friend") throughout the film are not composed on computer but through pencil and paper. And as a Christmas gift from his friends, he receives a typewriter. All of these objects and elements feel as if they are illustrating a certain disconnect the characters have towards the times in which they live. So they reach out for each other, creating their own tribe (a la "Freaks And Geeks") and they all attempt to seek solace as they are propelled into the future, whether they are ready to face it or not.
The turbulent emotions that lurk underneath all of the characters gives "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower" its greatest urgency. Within Chbosky's universe, Charlie, Sam, Patrick and their friends are experiencing love and hurt not simply for the first time but almost as stop gaps to a potentially more emotionally fulfilling future. While these kids are just counting the days to the end of high school and the chance to begin their lives anew as the people they truly feel themselves to be, the pain they feel along the way as they live and just wait and wait is palpable. With regard to romance, misplaced affections are abound between the members of the group, one of which nearly fractures it for good. Through these moments, Chbosky also shows just how precarious the nature of teenage friendships can be and how within the large and brutal social circle and cliques there are smaller social circles and cliques that are equally brutal. Even within "The Island Of Misfit Toys," these kids can include or discard at a moment's notice without regard for how the suddenness of their love or rejection can effect someone else, especially Charlie who desires their friendship more than any of them realize.
Like Author Jay Asher's excellent and deeply haunting young adult novel Thirteen Reasons Why, Chbosky wisely presents the issue that you just never, ever fully know exactly what and how much baggage another person is carrying internally. In "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower," almost every character is housing some secret or seemingly bottomless pain and while Chbosky perfectly captures the exhilaration Charlie feels with being accepted, the baggage and burdens he feels mounts heaviest. I cannot express enough how beautifully Logan Lerman navigates this incredibly tricky role of Charlie, our hero and narrator. He is indeed a wallflower, someone so quiet, insular and seemingly insignificant that he is barely noticed by anyone else. Yet he houses a horrific trauma, making his need for friends nothing less than a means for survival.
The bitter-sweetness found in the relationships between Charlie and his new friends is truly voluminous. There is a burning ache in the fact that Charlie is a Freshman while all of his new friends are Seniors. Just as he arrives and begins to find some footing, everyone he loves is about to depart, potentially leaving him uprooted and adrift all over again. In regards to Sam, with whom he falls in love, this provides an especially persistent lump in the throat that gives "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower" the solid status of containing another cinematic love story this year that feels authentic. From beginning to end, Logan Lerman delivers a richly textured and nuanced performance that properly never calls attention to itself yet nearly upends you with the fullness of its power, especially as we learn so much, much more about Charlie's troubled interior life.
As Patrick, Ezra Miller is indeed a young actor to keep your eyes completely open for. Like Charlie, the character of Patrick also carries deeply significant baggage which he buries publicly through his shield of abrasive humor, purposeful flamboyance and endlessly defiant wit. Within his circle of friends, Patrick is the de facto leader of "The Island Of Misfit Toys," and also works as protector and social/emotional guide for both Sam and Charlie. Yet also like Charlie, we see that all of this bravado is a front to keep the cracks in his veneer from showing as well as to keep himself from sliding into his own oblivion. Through the character of Patrick, Stephen Chbosky has presented the harsh adolescent truth that flies against every well meaning adult who has ever expressed to a struggling teenager that in just four years, this too shall pass and you will never have to see these people ever again. Patrick is the painful embodiment of one who wants to believe that aforementioned sentiment but through him, we all see the extremely long road it takes to arrive there. It is a journey that definitely unfolds day by day, hour by hour, and minute by minute and Ezra Miller's performance works as nothing less than a survival guide for current and future teenagers to cling to.
And of course, there's Emma Watson who shines so brightly in her first film role since completing her 8 film arc as the brilliant, boldly courageous and devastatingly loyal Hermione Granger from the "Harry Potter" films. With her performance as Sam, it was truly a delight to see how luminous of a young actress she has grown into being. Aside from absolutely nailing her American accent, Watson strikes a fine balance of one who has long accepted her status as a social outcast yet keeps finding herself making the same social mistakes that sadly placed her into this position in the first place. Sam's long journey is one of discovering a newfound sense of self-worth, self-respect and realizing that one does not have to settle for less or even degrade oneself in order to find and have the romance and love that has been so wistfully longed for.
The chemistry between Emma Watson, Ezra Miller and Logan Lerman is as strong and as hand-in-glove as the superlative casting in Hughes' best works as well as the ensembles from Writer/Director George Lucas' "American Graffiti" (1973), Director Amy Heckerling and Writer Cameron Crowe's "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" (1982), and Writer/Director Richard Linklater's "Dazed And Confused" (1993). These are three actors and three characters that you find yourself falling in love with for the nearly two hour duration of "The Perks Of being A Wallflower" and as with some of the very best movies, you feel the loss once the cinematic fairy dust has evaporated, leaving you seated in your movie theater seat. They are a triumvirate for the ages.
Stephen Chbosky's "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower" is a wonderful film filled with characters that are intelligent, passionate, compassionate, difficult, flawed, romantic, urgent and brave and completely devoid of any vacuousness. The fact that the characters in question happen to be teenagers is truly remarkable and entirely deserving of your embrace.
With the Fall Movie Season underway, there are, and will undoubtedly be, many films with much higher profiles arriving to capture your attention. I know you will wait in line for those films just as I will. But for now, I urge you to please seek this film out. For current teenagers, at long last, here is a film that loves and respects you and is made just for you. For those of us--like myself--whose adolescence is long behind them yet still remember and hold the full experience so dear to their hearts, here is a film that is so recognizably true to that precarious time of life.
And for all of us, no matter what our age happens to be, "The Perks Of Being A Wallflower" is one of the loveliest films of 2012.
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