Perks of Being a Wallflower: Modern-day Breakfast Club

1.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

There are very few times when I completely fall in love with a movie. It doesn't matter how good the film is, or even if it was very popular, there's just need to be something special that grabs my attention and makes me think about it for days. I can never tell exactly what it is, but I know it immediately after the movie's over.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is my new obsession. There is a certain charm and realness to the movie that occurs very rarely on screen, especially in a movie set in high school. The issues, while melodramatic in spots, are something that every one of us has gone through during our teenage formative year. There's love, heartbreak, friendship and insecurities. There is not a character that is not relatable on some level. And writer/director/author Stephen Chbosky's tone and dialogue flawlessly illustrates the roller coaster that is high school.

I wonder if my love of the movie was helped by the fact that I didn't read the book beforehand. There were some of aspects of the book that were not covered in the movie. They weren't included for a number of reasons: Time, not essential or to keep the cast small. I recommend reading the book either before or after you see the movie just so you get the full picture of Charlie's life. If I knew most of the story beforehand, especially the twist that happens 2/3 of the way in, I wonder if it would have had as much impact. I hope so, but I'll always wonder.

If we take the movie as just the movie and eliminate the book, I think it has the chance to be a modern day Breakfast Club. The issues are more relevant to the current generation than John Hughes' films was to his. Hughes' movie are deeper than most 80s teen movies, but they still spotlight the superficial issues of popularity and money.

Chbosky's Perks, on the other hand, digs a lot deeper and gets into sexuality, mental health and child sexual abuse. He does this while still framing it around the superficial aspect of Hughes' films. Perks, in many ways, is the dark version of those classics, and therefore more apropos of the current generation. For an apples to apples comparison of Hughes' films, see Easy A.

For the movie to reach into those dark places, the actors needed to be top notch, and he nailed just about every role. The riskiest choice he made was casting Logan Lerman as Charlie. Lerman hadn't shown much in the way of talent during his screen time in Percy Jackson and The Three Musketeers. This is another instance where casting calls were essential to the movie as Lerman is absolutely heartbreaking as Charlie.

His choice for the title female character, Sam, was fortuitous one because without Emma Watson using what power she had in movie industry, the movie doesn't get made. As important as casting Watson was important to the success of Perks, the role itself was as important to Watson career. She needed to find a role that would both further her career and separate her from Harry Potter and Hermione. Sam was the perfect role. 

She broke out of the uptight English-school girl look and embraced a more sure of herself American high schooler (see the Rocky Horror scenes). While her accent wasn't perfect, it was so good that by half way through the movie I forgot what her normal voice sounded like. She proved that she wasn't just a part of an ensemble cast, but a future leading lady.

But the star of the film — and a name you will be hearing for many years — was Ezra Miller. If you haven't seen We Need to Talk About Kevin, go see it now; it is the definition of a breakout role. 

Miller's Patrick was the heart of the movie. He made you laugh and cry, but most importantly, he made you wish that he was your friend. He should be recognized in some way for this role, and if that means all he gets is better roles, I think he'll take it. Patrick will be one of those characters we remember for a long time, or at least those of us that have seen the film.

And if you haven't seen it yet and it's still playing in theaters near you, go see it immediately.

Release date: September 21st.

Reason for ranking: Perks is one of the few movies that turned me into an unpaid marketer. This is a movie I will randomly watch on a boring night, and one that I won't turn off when it comes on TV. It is now on a list of about a half-dozen films that I can unequivocally say, 'I Love,' with a capital L.