Sam: Why do I and everyone I love pick people who treat us like we're nothing?
Charlie: We accept the love we think we deserve.
As a teenager, how many times have you heard that your problems are irrelevant or minor? I guess, a lot. But, what if they can transform into a bigger, more serious vita issues like: depression, low self-esteem, friendlessness or even a suicide risk. No doubt, “The perks of being a wallflower” is a kind of a movie where your voice can be heard and you might recognize yourself in the main characters. Also, this film confirms my own weird theory – adolescence is the best period of your life and I`ll prove it to those, who still hesitate.
overall
Actually, a movie was based on a novel by Stephen Chbosky, who also was a good director and a generous screenwriter. The high muckety-muck of the storyline is a 15 years old Charlie (Logan Lerman), who suffers from deep traumas and is a naive outsider, trying to copy with high school challenges. Together with his new best friends – Sam (Emma Watson) and Patrick (Ezra Miller) he swims across the ocean of the first love, bullying, struggling to find real friends for life and restore memories about his dead aunt and her pedophilic behavior.
First of all, I would like to talk about an incredible performance: my favorite character turned out to be Patrick and it means that Ezra did such an outstanding portrayal of a noisy, funny but at the same time – troublesome shy gay persona. Next one is Emma Watson, who was very tired of playing brilliant Hermione and gifted us a marvelous story about a girl (Sam), who learns to love and wants to enter a dream university but is very expressive and free-spirited too. Finally, Logan – whose acting of a complicated freshman Charlie lives rent free in my mind… Despite all their differences, there is one event, for which they are not ready – growing up, losing and forgetting childhood (adolescence) and all the wonderful moments together, even though it was sometimes a dark time.
symbols
Special place in my heart occupies tunnel scenes. “The perks of being a wallflower” both starts and finishes with the “infinity” tunnel, a place which – to the Sam, Charlie and Patrick – seems to be a place of pure peace with the cruel world and a place, where they embrace themselves. On the first attached picture here, we see Sam and then Charlie experience this by standing up at the back of a hilarious truck, holding arms out, with no anxiety or fear and seemingly never-ending tunnel.
“How could we forgot about Mr.Anderson (great teacher and Charlie’s friend at school)?” – you might say. Fortunately, I didn`t forget about the heart of that awful high school and one of the few who supported Charlie in all his writing endeavors. Throughout the story, Paul Rudd’s character becomes a guiding mentor, providing him support and a love language in the form of books.
The other teenagers “love language” is music, which is soooo related as well as movies to me. In the case of books, it was Mr.Anderson and his immortal classic, but here is Sam, with her unique and rebellious taste in music. Frankly speaking, the official playlist of this film is my true roman empire: David Bowie, The Smiths, Dexys Midnight Runners, e.t.c.
why do people love “the perks of being a wallflower”
Diving into the strange and rude community of Reddit, I met different opinions on “The perks of being a wallflower”. Such as: “this is just a typical high school drama”, “I had to watch three times before I got the new, right perspective” or “ I saw the film when I was 30 and didn’t like it”. Honestly, I agree with all of them – “The perks of being a wallflower” is a perfect mix of childlish relationships and explanation of various complex traumas that can be hard to understand if you are an adult. People love this picture because it feels honest in a way most of clichéd stories don’t. Some of the fans (like me) feel deeply connected to Charlie, for instance, because it mirrors their daily life moments and admits that even if you are not the “school star” or not hanging out with the cool ones, you can still be seen and heard.
summing up
Nowadays, lots of teens are facing such problems and find it hard to communicate with the classmates or even family. Not having friends, be a complete unknown and spend your prime days staring at the screen became absolutely normal, if you look closely at the trends in social media. Being an extravert and watch the brightest stars fade made me realize one cruel truth about the movie: there is a 5% chance that you will meet such amazing friends like Charlie had. All in all, “The perks of being a wallflower” is a type of film, after which you will value every fucking minute of your youth and maybe, add it to your top 4 on Letterboxd. And when I feel sad about my miserable life or exhausted, I always remember Sam and her free will at the back of the truck and legendary Heroes by David Bowie…
“When the lights go down, that’s magic. Cinema should be seen in cinemas.”
Oh, and here is a booklist from Charlie and his greatest teacher – Mr.Anderson. He (Charlie) describes them all as his favourite:
· To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
· This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
· A Separate Peace by John Knowles
· Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
· The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
· The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
· On the Road by Jack Kerouac
· Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
· Walden by Henry David Thoreau
· Hamlet by William Shakespeare
· The Stranger by Albert Camus
· The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
