Perks of Being a Wallflower, The
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 10:10 am
Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1659337/
Logan Lerman, Emma Watson
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0503567/
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Of course you know who Emma is, but in this great movie, there is no trace of the British accent, and certainly no trace of the Hermione Granger character from the Harry Potter films. You may recognize Lerman from the Percy Jackson film, or some of his other obscure works. I did, however, keep expecting Emma to whip out a wand and start blasting people, though!
Lerman plays Charlie, an incoming high school student fresh out of a miserable middle school experience. It's clear that he's messed up, somehow, and that he's been 'in the hospital', but you don't know for what until about halfway into the flick when he gets stoned on a hash brownie at his first party.
Before that, however, he has no friends. He's the shy nerdy kid you see sitting alone at lunch with a book, you know the type?
Then he meets Patrick (Ezra Miller: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3009232/) in vocational arts (shop) class. He's a senior taking the class AGAIN... Later on, he sees him at a football game, and decides to risk talking to him. Enter Sam(antha), the step sister of Patrick. Suddenly, these two senior misfits are taking in the young misfit, and immediate friendship ensues.
Charlie is suitably pathetic, Sam the former slut links crank, and Patrick is gay and in love with a football player. Enter in their other friends: a compulsive shoplifting rich girl, a bossy but needy Liberal Buddhist girl, and a host of other supporting characters to take our hero in.
Their interests including making mix tapes (cassettes!) of 'good music', critiquing the tastes of others, performing live in front of the big screen to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and standing up in the bed of a moving pickup truck going down the highway. (Charlie will eventually portray Rocky for one night!)
Things are looking up for Charlie, who by this time has revealed one of his secrets. His best friend committed suicide right out of middle school. We then learn that his favorite Auntie has died, and there is something to this that they keep flashing back to - probably the root cause of all Charlie's mental issues. However, these things are only mentioned and never really fully explored, I think. The friend is mentioned, but we know nothing more about him. The flashbacks to Auntie are vague and confused.
The part that really bothered me was this: were the seniors just using him for entertainment, or did they genuinely like him? "You can be our friend so long as you don't screw up."
Well, Charlie does screw up and he doesn't see them for over 2 weeks. Then, Patrick, who is gay and in love with a football player who is in the closet, gets beaten up in the cafeteria and Charlie snaps, taking out half the football team single-handedly. Then they're all friends again, and Charlie goes into a nervous breakdown and ends up back in the mental hospital. Never mind the fact that in the modern world, he'd probably being doing 10-20 for assault with intent to kill.
All of this, of course, leads to him becoming a writer (hinted at), but never addressing the odd relationship that he has with these seniors who are all graduating and leaving him to finish high school without them. I finished the movie wondering, still, just what was the nature of their relationship - even though it is strongly stated that Sam & Charlie are in love.
The movie, however, is a good one. The characters, while they've all got serious issues, are believable and you really care about them from the get-go. The writing is good, the side plots are good, and overall, it's just a great film that is probably supposed to keep you wondering about certain things like just what Charlie's Aunt did to him before she died that messed him up so badly. Emma Watson sheds her Hermione persona well, proving that she can act, and it's no wonder that Ezra Miller is on the watch list of future stars. The acting performances are great, and the actors are into their characters without going over the top.
It's refreshing to see a good movie, especially one that will probably hit on some sensitive nerve of anyone who survived high school.
Logan Lerman, Emma Watson
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0503567/
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Of course you know who Emma is, but in this great movie, there is no trace of the British accent, and certainly no trace of the Hermione Granger character from the Harry Potter films. You may recognize Lerman from the Percy Jackson film, or some of his other obscure works. I did, however, keep expecting Emma to whip out a wand and start blasting people, though!
Lerman plays Charlie, an incoming high school student fresh out of a miserable middle school experience. It's clear that he's messed up, somehow, and that he's been 'in the hospital', but you don't know for what until about halfway into the flick when he gets stoned on a hash brownie at his first party.
Before that, however, he has no friends. He's the shy nerdy kid you see sitting alone at lunch with a book, you know the type?
Then he meets Patrick (Ezra Miller: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3009232/) in vocational arts (shop) class. He's a senior taking the class AGAIN... Later on, he sees him at a football game, and decides to risk talking to him. Enter Sam(antha), the step sister of Patrick. Suddenly, these two senior misfits are taking in the young misfit, and immediate friendship ensues.
Charlie is suitably pathetic, Sam the former slut links crank, and Patrick is gay and in love with a football player. Enter in their other friends: a compulsive shoplifting rich girl, a bossy but needy Liberal Buddhist girl, and a host of other supporting characters to take our hero in.
Their interests including making mix tapes (cassettes!) of 'good music', critiquing the tastes of others, performing live in front of the big screen to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and standing up in the bed of a moving pickup truck going down the highway. (Charlie will eventually portray Rocky for one night!)
Things are looking up for Charlie, who by this time has revealed one of his secrets. His best friend committed suicide right out of middle school. We then learn that his favorite Auntie has died, and there is something to this that they keep flashing back to - probably the root cause of all Charlie's mental issues. However, these things are only mentioned and never really fully explored, I think. The friend is mentioned, but we know nothing more about him. The flashbacks to Auntie are vague and confused.
The part that really bothered me was this: were the seniors just using him for entertainment, or did they genuinely like him? "You can be our friend so long as you don't screw up."
Well, Charlie does screw up and he doesn't see them for over 2 weeks. Then, Patrick, who is gay and in love with a football player who is in the closet, gets beaten up in the cafeteria and Charlie snaps, taking out half the football team single-handedly. Then they're all friends again, and Charlie goes into a nervous breakdown and ends up back in the mental hospital. Never mind the fact that in the modern world, he'd probably being doing 10-20 for assault with intent to kill.
All of this, of course, leads to him becoming a writer (hinted at), but never addressing the odd relationship that he has with these seniors who are all graduating and leaving him to finish high school without them. I finished the movie wondering, still, just what was the nature of their relationship - even though it is strongly stated that Sam & Charlie are in love.
The movie, however, is a good one. The characters, while they've all got serious issues, are believable and you really care about them from the get-go. The writing is good, the side plots are good, and overall, it's just a great film that is probably supposed to keep you wondering about certain things like just what Charlie's Aunt did to him before she died that messed him up so badly. Emma Watson sheds her Hermione persona well, proving that she can act, and it's no wonder that Ezra Miller is on the watch list of future stars. The acting performances are great, and the actors are into their characters without going over the top.
It's refreshing to see a good movie, especially one that will probably hit on some sensitive nerve of anyone who survived high school.