The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
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Overview
About the Film
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a 2012 American coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, based on his own bestselling 1999 epistolary novel. Logan Lerman stars as Charlie, a shy, emotionally fragile freshman entering high school in Pittsburgh in the early 1990s who is still recovering from a traumatic experience and the recent suicide of his only friend. Charlie is taken in by two charismatic seniors: Patrick, an openly gay student played by Ezra Miller, and his stepsister Sam, played by Emma Watson, whose circle of misfits and outcasts introduces Charlie to the world of parties, Rocky Horror shadowcasts, mixtapes, and the exhilarating freedom of standing in the back of a pickup truck driving through a tunnel with the radio blasting.
Stephen Chbosky's decision to direct the adaptation of his own novel ensured an unusual fidelity to the source material's emotional truth, and the film captured the intense, overwhelming quality of adolescent emotion with rare authenticity. Logan Lerman's quietly devastating performance conveyed Charlie's intelligence, vulnerability, and the barely contained trauma that threatens to overwhelm him. Emma Watson, in her first major post-Harry Potter role, demonstrated significant range as the warm, complicated Sam.
Ezra Miller's Patrick was a revelation of charisma and emotional honesty. The film earned $33 million worldwide on a $13 million budget and became a generational touchstone for young audiences, much as the novel had been for readers.
