The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Directed by Stephen Chbosky
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1991. High school freshman Charlie is a wallflower, always watching life from the sidelines, until two senior students, Sam and her stepbrother Patrick, become his mentors, helping him discover the joys of friendship, music and love.
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Though some things get lost in translation, there are compensating virtues: The dialogue is filled with nifty literary references, a clever nod to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is great fun, and the emotional roller coaster rings true.
The movie is a big Valentine box of creamy nostalgia: for the early ’90s, for the musical touchstones of the period (The Smiths, The Rocky Horror Picture Show) and for the lovely delusion that outcasts are the hippest kids around.
There's an affectionate nod to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and British bands the Smiths and Dexys Midnight Runners, and a suitable, crowd-pleasing denouement featuring David Bowie's classic ''Heroes''.
They introduce him to their (sort of) indie lives, in which they recreate “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the local arthouse every weekend.
They glory in the music that Charlie loves, dress up and act out The Rocky Horror Picture Show on the weekend with their avant-garde friends and party like they’re already in college.
They introduce him to the Smiths, mix tapes, and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” as well as to various pharmaceutical pleasures and risks.
Even without the music, baby boomers and Gen Xers will fondly recall any number of director John Hughes’s character-driven ensemble dramadies, such as The Breakfast Club.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower recalls dozens of high school movies from Fast Times at Ridgemont High to Lucas to The Breakfast Club to Mean Girls and so on...
Teen angst is a well-worn topic on screen, and prone to both critical dismissal (Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series) and captivation (John Hughes' The Breakfast Club).
High School in the late 1980’s and 1990’s bore little resemblance to the hyper-stylized version portrayed by John Hughes in films like The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink.
You’ve seen it all before, from Holden Caulfield to “The Breakfast Club” to “Degrassi High”: misfit teens in suburbia having wee existential crises, massive unrequited crushes, and emotions no one else has ever felt before.
All I can say with any certainty is that Chbosky’s Perks is the first film in far too long to stand shoulder to shoulder with Hughes’ The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful – screenplay bibles for emotionally adrift teenagers.
High School in the late 1980’s and 1990’s bore little resemblance to the hyper-stylized version portrayed by John Hughes in films like The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink.
Chbosky employs the comedic-dramatic tightrope frequently walked by the late John Hughes in such mid-80’s, adolescent-skewing classics as The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Pretty in Pink, as well as an arsenal of me-decade tunes by such singers as David Bowie, The Smiths, Morrissey and, naturally, Dexys Midnight Runners.
All I can say with any certainty is that Chbosky’s Perks is the first film in far too long to stand shoulder to shoulder with Hughes’ The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful – screenplay bibles for emotionally adrift teenagers.
But that something is way too dramatic for a movie that in spirit is closer to Pretty in Pink than Cries and Whispers .
While countless novelists have written screenplays, it’s extremely rare for one to also direct a film version of his own work — the only two I can think of off the top of my head are Norman Mailer (“Tough Guys Don’t Dance’’) and Stephen King (um, “Maximum Overdrive’’).
Every writer thinking they'd be better off directing their own book should sit down and watch Maximum Overdrive, Stephen King's embarrassing 1986 directorial debut—and, to date, his only attempt at feature filmmaking .
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And a massive plot-point involves this cluster of extremely savvy indie music buffs in 1991 somehow not managing to recognise David Bowie's legendary 1977 single "Heroes".
Christian Slater, Winona Ryder and Shannen Doherty were all in their teens in 1988 when they shot Heathers, still the definitively corrosive portrait of life and death in high school (and soon to be a Bravo TV series).
It may sound like John Hughes, but Chbosky hasn’t reinvented the likes of Sixteen Candles here, despite a pleasing cameo by Joan Cusack as a sage shrink.
All I can say with any certainty is that Chbosky’s Perks is the first film in far too long to stand shoulder to shoulder with Hughes’ The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful – screenplay bibles for emotionally adrift teenagers.
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The two of them co-starred in one of my favorite films, "Dazed and Confused," and it was just great to see them together again.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower recalls dozens of high school movies from Fast Times at Ridgemont High to Lucas to The Breakfast Club to Mean Girls and so on...