‘Perks’ come to life

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a movie based on the book by Stephen Chbosky, who is also the director. A lot of teenage movies come out every year, but they don’t really bring anything new. They tend to show teenage dramas in a superficial way and end up being big cliches. But not The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

The story is about Charlie’s sophomore year, with a lot of well explored drama, deep conflicts and new experiences that come with the high school years. Charlie is a lonely boy with psychological damage and few friends. He starts his sophomore year without any friends except his literature teacher, until later he meets Patrick, a homosexual boy, and Sam, Patrick’s traumatized but happy half sister, both who are seniors. He feels very welcomed by their group and they go on to face the difficulties of being a teenager together.

At this age, everything feels more serious than it really is and even more so when someone has gone through really hard times during his life, which is very well exposed in this movie. What makes it so interesting and touching is how deep every character is and how important and remarkable every experience and discovery was.

Accompanied by a great soundtrack, every scene catches our attention and makes us feel in Charlie’s situation as a teenager, as a student or as a friend. Behind the smiling faces, there will be dark pasts, big secrets, hard moments and only friendship against all of the bad things.

The actors also show great performances. Logan Lerman, as Charlie, gives the extremely complex character the sensibility we need to understand him and put ourselves in his situation. Emma Watson, as Sam, shows that she could leave Harry Potter and Hermione behind to give life to a whole different personality, and in a whole different scenario. And, maybe the best performance of all, Ezra Miller as Patrick, who plays a funny and at the same time touching character, who will make you laugh but also cry.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower deserves to be remembered not only for the quality of it’s production, but also for the originality, sensibility and depth. It is, for sure, one of the best movies of the year. It is completely worth watching.

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