What's In Robin's Queue: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"

Just when I thought I was all movied out after many film award events, including the Oscars, I was reminded that great storytelling in film can be easily missed. Personally, my attention was more invested in last month’s Independent Spirit Awards, and this film found its way scribbled onto a mustard colored Post-it note. There it took residence, crumpled, sticky and sandwiched with other Post-its, neglected at the corner of my desk in my "keep in mind" list---that I can afford to lose and eventually toss in the trash.

On a trip to Sweetbay supermarket, I rushed in and stopped to glace over at the RedBox. Am I in the mood for another movie? I thought. I was burnt out and only running in for green tea and a week’s worth of Luna Bars, but I still gazed upon the list of available films. There it was, my little forgotten gem. Though released in the autumn of 2012, it’s been praised as one of the best films of last year. It was not awarded in the mainstream Oscars but earned many film festival awards, including Best First Feature at the Indie Spirit Awards. Though it's long gone from the theaters, I highly recommend you add The Perks of Being a Wallflower to your Netflix queue or pull it from your closest RedBox.

It was adapted for the screen from the best-selling novel of the same name by Stephen Chbosky, who directed the film himself. This modern coming-of-age story introduces us to 15-year-old Charlie (Logan Lerman) as he embarks on the clumsy and terrifying entrance to his freshman year of high school. From smart cinematic expression and sophisticated narration in the opening scenes, you know this isn’t another campy, tired teenage film. Charlie is writing to a friend, who is not revealed to us, and no matter your age, both Charlie's wisdom and endearing naïveté immediately steal your heart. A vacancy in spirit and heavier abandon in his life suggest more than freshman anxiety. A few days into the horror of his freshman existence in bustling hallways of jocks and popular babes, Charlie finds a friend in his English teacher, Mr. Anderson (Paul Rudd), who encourages Charlie’s interests in literature and writing. Soon, Charlie finds his fellow “misfit toys” in seniors Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Patrick’s step-sister, Sam (Emma Watson).Patrick is a colorful and charismatic young man who openly embraces his homosexuality and warms Charlie up to celebrating their quirky nature. Ezra Miller's acting work demands we keep our sights on him. His brilliant range impressed the hell out of me when I saw him in We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011). Emma Watson delivers a delightful and smart quality to her character. She’s pixie cute and masters the hefty ghosts and dark history of Sam’s youth.

Both Sam and Patrick take Charlie under their wing on a night when Charlie gets stoned for the first time and confesses the suicide of his best friend. Dramatic and dark tones in all three characters are heightened nearly halfway through the film. For example, there's an occasional break in Charlie's behavior, and something feels off. Conversations with his family hint further that something in the freshman's past may be more disturbing.

I'll rein it in here as not to give away the spoiler. What is most impressive in this film, as with the novel, is how it gracefully weaves serious issues of abuse, bullying and sexual identity with an endearing charm. The viewer and the characters are tenderly confronted with "accepting the love we feel we deserve." Chbosky's work never reduces his characters to victims, nor carries a trite attitude toward the teenager. 

The film produces a a courage that every one of us may feel regardless of our age, and certainly the memories of our own teenage years connect to the bittersweet reality in the film. It has a timeless quality like other well-written films that tackle this time of life. Anyone can list films, like The Breakfast Club, that remain relevant when you watch them today. I can’t compare them, as the emotional and tonal qualities are quite different, but they share great storytelling that can be revisited many years later. They impressively illustrate the pains and joys of youth many of us remember. They flesh out hope and the luxury of unbridled freedom as a teenager. It promises success. You’ll rise through the hells of those years and you never go unnoticed. This is a film you’ll cherish for great craftsmanship in writing, directing, performance and soul that provokes thought and soothes your heart. Many years later, with a half-devoured Luna Bar beside the land of neglected Post-its, I'll marvel at how this cinematic gem still evokes the wallflowers we once were, or that shaped the one we are today.