Movie Review: The Perks of being a Wallflower

As you guys know, I generally review really big budget movies with really great action, but I do watch many movies which are not big budget action movies. I generally don’t do reviews of them because generally with films which have a lot of emotion and tight knit drama, there is a lot which cannot be described with words. Yes, I can write about how great the story was and how well the dialogues were, but I can never let you fully understand what goes through me, when I watch such films. Take “Prisoners” for example, it is probably one of the best films I have seen, but I don’t have a review up for it, because I don’t think such a film can be rated. But of course, I did start this blog so I can develop my skills, so with this article I’m going to do just that.

This post is my review of “The Perks of being a Wallflower”. This review isn’t going to be split up into parts like I usually do. This is going to be more of a raw feedback, because I generally sleep on a movie before I review it. But it has hardly been 2 hours since I watched “The Perks of being a Wallflower”.

Let me begin by saying that this movie is incredible. It is such a great coming of age movie, and more importantly it is a really good teen drama movie, which is a great achievement in this day and age.

What’s special about this film is that, somehow it manages to capture what it means to be a teenager. (Trust me, this is from a teenager.) Every scene in this movie has something a teenager would do. It captures the search for meaning, the mundane aspects of life, and the rush of having a new experience, the sorrow of loss and everything else a teen goes through. And I also like the fact that this is that we are never certain when this movie is set, because this lends to a timeless aspect of the film where even people who are now adults can look back say that they have experienced. Throughout the film, we see very little reference to the setting, there are no cell phones, or plasma screen TV’s which indicate the time which it is set. The only giveaway is the mix tapes, but even they don’t look that much out of place.

Another great aspect of the film is the acting. The acting is almost perfect to the tone and themes of the film. Logan Lerman did a really good job as Charlie, and Emma Watson shed the image of Hermione completely to portray Sam. But probably the most likeable character was Ezra Miller as Patrick. He blew it out of the park.

If you think about it, there is at least one character in the film which each and everyone can relate to, or we can look at them and go, “Oh, I know someone like that.” The portrayals of the characters were really great and part of what made it so was the writing. The dialogues are all well written, and feel like something which what most of us would speak.

The cinematography and editing add a special touch to the film, and gives it a more personal feel to it. What I also really appreciate is that, beneath coming of age story, there is a really deep story which explores some really dark places. It really makes you ask yourself, if you had a chance to undo everything bad done to you, would you do it? After all a man is the sum of his actions and experience.

Although the movie isn't without flaws it is beautifully written and directed, and captures the beauty of the one moment in life where we are all infinite. It made me laugh, cry and ache and that, to me, is the greatest compliment a movie can get.

“The Perks of being a Wallflower” is a really good movie, which everyone can relate to and it is definitely a movie which I cherish. Do check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

Let me know, if you like this more raw type of review. Maybe I’ll do more J 

Peace!!